The Gilmer Lady Cats softball team traveled south on 515 on Tuesday to play the Dragonettes of Pickens in a region match up.  With the thoughts of a last inning loss to Northwest Whitfield last Thursday most likely still on their minds, the Lady Cats were ready to put out the fire Pickens has been breathing over their last several games.

The Top of the first started in the way that Coach Charles had hoped for.  Lead off batter Jayd Hamby stepped in the batter’s box and ripped a double to centerfield.  Mallory Kiser advanced Hamby to third on a 6-3 sacrifice followed by a hard single by Jasmine Staley that scored Hamby for the first Gilmer run. The Lady Cats added one more in the inning with a single(Hannah Bennett), sacrifice(Taylor Elliott) and a double(Allison Sirmans). Jaylin Vick started in the circle and shut down the Dragonette batters in the bottom half of the inning leaving the score 2-0 after one complete.  The second inning was quite for both teams with no runs on the board.  The lady Cats added 2 more in the top of the third with the help of Isabella Chastain, Emily Dale, Taylor Elliott, and Hannah Bennett all with singles.  In the home half of the third Pickens put up 3 of their on to close the gap to 4-3.

Adding 2 runs in the fourth the Lady cats stretched the lead to 6-3 on the Dragonettes. In the 4th through 6th innings, pitching and defense dominated and kept the numbers on the scoreboard the same for Gilmer while Pickens scratched up one to present a 6-4 score heading to the 7th.  The Gilmer batters went quickly in the top half with the last chance for the Dragonettes looming.  With Vick still in the circle, Pickens came through with a walk off victory putting 3 last inning runs for a 7-6 walk off win.  This was the second last inning loss for the Lady Cats in consecutive games.

Coming through at the plate for Gilmer with an excellent game were Hannah Bennett(3-3 with a walk and 2 runs scored and a walk), Jasmine Staley(3-4 with 1 RBI and 2 runs scored), Allison Sirmans(2-4 with 3 RBI), and Jayd Hamby( 2-4 with 1 run scored).  The Lady Cats had 13 hits in the 7-6 loss with Jaylin Vick allowing 7 runs on 12 hits in the 7 inning game.  Vick through 108 pitches with 70 being strikes.

Next up for the Gilmer Lady Cats will be on Wednesday night as they travel to River Ridge for a 7:00 PM game.