With playoff positioning on the line, the East Marion Lady Eagles split perhaps their most important district series of the season Monday against Perry Central.
In the matinee, an 11-run fourth inning was the difference for the Lady Eagles (6-10, 3-2) in a 20-11 victory. Holly Jackson took on a starring role with two doubles, a triple and 4 RBI, while Car’Miyah Bullock smacked two doubles and also drove in four runs. Adrinae Aikens (triple) and Ashley Rabourn (double) each had a pair of hits and 2 RBI, and Jalasia Akins plated three runs with a single and two walks. Raybourn threw a complete game in the circle, allowing nine earned runs.
However, in the nightcap, East Marion fell flat in an 18-6 loss that lasted just three-and-a-half innings. Raybourn led the Lady Eagles at the dish with two RBI singles, and Kylie Watts singled twice to drive in a run. Six errors hurt Raybourn in the circle as she allowed nine earned runs and nine unearned runs.
“In the first game, we performed really good. The second game I really don’t know what happened,” head coach Jeremy Allen said. “I think we got more relaxed, like ‘We won the first game so we got this’ mentality.’ We jumped on them 4-2, then it went downhill. We missed a couple flyballs in the outfield, didn’t make some throws in the infield and they scored 11 and made it 13-4. We never recovered from it.”
The loss could come back to haunt East Marion big time. Currently the Lady Eagles are tied with Perry Central for second place in Region 8-2A, but Perry Central holds the tiebreaker because of point differential in the head-to-head matchups. However, the Lady Eagles have the opportunity to claim the second spot outright if they beat St. Patrick on Tuesday in their regular season finale.
With the second seed from the district, East Marion would have home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs against Puckett. If they lose to St. Patrick and falls to third, the Lady Eagles will have to play Enterprise in the playoffs, with Enterprise having two games of the three-game series at home.
Prior to playing St. Patrick, East Marion traveled to Jeff Davis County Friday, but results were unavailable at press time. The Lady Eagles are set to play Ben’s Ford on Monday.
