By Erik Harris, sports editor
MONTGOMERY — The Moody Blue Devils came up one win shy of a Class 5A state tournament bid.
The Area 11 runner-up bounced back with three straight East Central Regional wins after starting the tournament with a 6-5 extra-innings loss to Sardis on Wednesday.
The postseason run, however, came to an end at the hands of the Lions on Thursday night by a 7-3 final. Sardis took its first lead at 2-1 in the bottom of the third and stretched things out from there, taking a 4-1 lead into the fourth and a 7-2 lead into the seventh.
Moody loaded the bases in the top of the seventh and scratched one run when Skylar Black bolted home on a passed ball, but the Blue Devils stranded two runners on as the season came to an end.
Moody claimed a 1-0 advantage in the first after Kendall Trimm reached on a leadoff single and later went home on a Carmen Terry ground ball. The Blue Devils would not score again until Trimm sent Black home with a sacrifice fly to right. Back reached earlier on a two-bagger.
Loser’s bracket: Moody 10, Shelby County 3
Moody earned a spot in the No. 2 qualifier game with a 10-3 victory over Shelby County on Thursday afternoon. A five-run fifth and a three-run fourth propelled the Blue Devils. First baseman Kendall Trimm homered two in to give the Blue Devils a 4-1 lead in the fourth and they never looked back.
Moody loaded the bases and capitalized with five more runs in the fifth. Brianna Downey sent the first run in with an RBI slow-roller to third. Maddie Barfield followed with a two-run single into center and Carmen Terry wrapped up the big frame with a two-run triple.
Loser’s bracket: Moody 7, Ramsay 2
After splitting a two-game East Central Regional set on Wednesday, the Moody softball team returned to Lagoon Park on Thursday morning for a 7-2 victory over Ramsay.
Facing elimination, the Blue Devils rallied back from an early 1-0 deficit with seven unanswered to push the game out of reach and set a date with Shelby County in another must-win game scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Alexandria Harvard slapped in two runs, Carmen Terry and Libby Higgins both stroked solo homers, and Moody stayed alive with a five-run win over the Area 10 runner-up Rams.
Harvard evened the score at 1-1 with an RBI groundout in the bottom of the first inning and later put the Blue Devils out front 5-1 with a run-scoring infield single in a decisive third inning, as Moody took advantage of two Ramsay errors with four runs scored.
Higgins’ solo blast went to right-center field and gave the Blue Devils their first lead at 2-1 in the second. Terry’s homer finished the scoring at 7-2 in the sixth.
Defensively, right hander Hannah Self worked a complete game in the circle, holding Ramsay scoreless in five of its seven plate appearances. The Rams managed to scratch single runs in the first and sixth innings.
Loser’s bracket: Moody 10, Leeds 0
First round: Sardis 6, Moody 5
The Moody High School softball team opened up the East Central Regional with a two-game split on Wednesday afternoon.
The Blue Devils opened things up with a brutal 6-5 loss to Saridis in 11 innings, but rebounded with a 10-0 victory over Leeds in the loser’s bracket.
Facing elimination against the Greenwave, Moody collected 13 hits and scored in four of the five innings played while right-hander Hollie Graham pitched a four-hit shutout.
Graham pitched with a lead most of the way, as her offense put up three runs in the bottom of the first, added four more in the third, went for a single run in the fourth and finished things off with two final runs in the fifth. The mercy-rule win was complete.
Carmen Terry homered, singled and capped off her day with a three-RBI effort. Alexandria Harvard also barrelled up a home run on her way to two hits and as many RBIs for the Blue Devils. Maddie Barfield chipped in with a 2-for-2 outing with two RBIs and two runs scored, while Kendall Trimm came through with three hits, an RBI and two runs scored.
Moody will return to play on Thursday morning against Ramsay in a win-or-go-home game. First pitch is scheduled for 9 a.m. at Lagoon Park.
As for Leeds, the Greenwave slipped into the loser’s bracket with a 4-1 first-round loss to Shelby County.
Leed’s one run came off an Emma Machen single in the fourth. Maddie Payne went for a Lees-high two hits.
Shelby County only found five hits, but two of them jumped the fence thanks to Kensley Wesley and Morgan Dupree. Maleah Hale and Paci Clark also found RBIs for the Wildcats, who jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first and added single runs in the second, fifth and sixth innings.