Marshall County senior softball player Katie Crabtree earned household bragging rights on Friday afternoon when the Tigerettes (9-6) claimed an 8-4 home victory over local rival Cornersville, which is coached by her father Eric Crabtree.

Coming off a pair of frustrating losses to Spring Hill and Giles County earlier in the week, MCHS righted the ship on Friday and jumped out to an 8-0 lead through the first four innings of play before fending off a late Lady Bulldog rally to snap a two-game losing streak.

No bets

"We were talking smack at each other the last several days and he wanted to make bets with me earlier in the week, but he backed off," said Katie Crabtree. "There was definitely more intensity for this game."

After scoring a total of just three runs in their previous two games, the Tigerettes broke out of their offensive funk and finished with 12 hits and a walk against Cornersville starting pitcher Taylor Wolaver. The Lady Bulldogs (3-4) also made Wolaver's job harder by committing five errors, which contributed to four of Marshall County's eight runs.

"We had some pregame jitters. Anytime you play a bigger school you're going to have some pregame jitters," said Eric Crabtree. "The bottom line is that we didn't do the small things right and waited too late to make a run."

Madison Thomason and Ashton Watkins both tallied three hits and combined to score five runs to lead MCHS' offensive resurgence, while McKenzie Anderson added two hits. Austyn Whaley (3 RBI), Mecia Reed (2 RBI), Madison Hargrove (1 RBI), and Katie Crabtree each notched one hit for the Tigerettes as well.

Hitting work

"They've been pretty disappointed about our last two hitting performances so we've done a lot of work in the cage. They've probably taken 300 swings apiece the last two days," said Marshall County coach Holly Cook.

MCHS starting hurler Grace Medley turned in a solid effort in the circle to pick up her fifth win of the year, as she limited the Lady Bulldogs to a modest six hits in the contest.

Kaitlyn Rogers and Breanne Dunkleman each tallied two hits to pace Cornersville at the plate, while Miranda Cooksey (2 RBI) and MandiLynn Calahan both had one hit.

The Tigerettes grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Thomason raced home on a sacrifice fly by Whaley after belting a one-out double and advancing to third on a Watkins single.

Medley worked around a leadoff double by Rogers in the top of the second before Marshall County pushed across four runs in the bottom of the third inning with the help of four CHS errors, a single by Watkins, a Reed RBI single, and a RBI bloop double by Hargrove to open up a 5-0 advantage.

Tigerettes roll

In the bottom of the fourth, the Tigerettes tallied three more runs to forge an 8-0 lead. After loading the bases with one out on singles by Anderson, Thomason, and Watkins, Whaley hammered a two-run double off the top of the centerfield fence before Reed drove in Watkins with a sacrifice fly.

The Lady Bulldogs tried to claw their way back into the game in the top of the fifth and scored three runs in the inning to cut the deficit to 8-3. Rogers beat out an infield single to lead off the inning, before Wolaver reached base on a fielder's choice when MCHS unsuccessfully tried to throw out Rogers at second. Following a single by Dunkleman, which loaded the bases with no outs, Cooksey smacked a two-run single into centerfield to plate Rogers and Wolaver. Calahan then drove in Dunkleman with a RBI groundout to cap the scoring in the inning.

Wolaver escaped a one-out bases loaded jam in the bottom of the fifth when Cornersville third baseman Carson Coble turned an unassisted double play after fielding a groundball by Morgan Moyers.

CHS then notched a run in the top of the seventh inning thanks to a single by Dunkleman, a Tigerette error, and a RBI groundout by Briley Bean for the 8-4 final.