A late fifth inning score by the Ardmore Tigers broke the 1-1 tie and secured the 2-1 victory over the Hayden Wildcats Tuesday to advance in the 2021 AHSAA State Softball Tournament at Choccolocco Park in Oxford.

The first runs came across home plate in the third inning for both teams. After a fly out by Hayden’s Becca Benton, a throwing error on an attempt to get the lead runner at third allowed Wildcats to score first and take a 1-0 lead.

Ardmore came right back in the bottom half of the inning to tie things up at 1-1 on a hard ground ball RBI single to right field by Bo Riley scoring Sydney Sanders who led off the inning with a double.

With two outs in the fifth, Riley came through again for the Tigers. After Reagan Clem led off the inning with a walk, Riley followed that up with a line drive single to center field, which was misplayed by Hayden’s center fielder, allowing what would end up being the winning run for the Tigers to cross home plate.

Though Hayden tallied 10 hits and Ardmore finished the game with seven, runs came at a premium for both teams. Ardmore’s Ella Singletary pitched a complete seven innings allowing just one run (zero earned), zero walks with four strikeouts. Miah Simmons pitched six innings allowing just two runs (one earned), one walk with two strikeouts.

Riley led Ardmore with two hits and one RBI. Brooke Phillips, Clem, Adeline Atchley, AG King, Sydney Sanders and Sara Sanders each had one hit.

“Our goal was to get to the next day, we got to Wednesday and we’ll roll and see what happens,” Ardmore softball head coach Stephen Baugh said.

Results from Ardmore’s earlier games:

Ardmore 6, Tallassee Tigers 5

Ardmore put two runs on the board in the second inning to take a quick 2-0 lead. Sydney Sanders drove in the first run on an RBI double in the gap. Sydney advanced to third in Sara Sanders at-bat and Sara took the opportunity to lay down a perfectly placed bunt to bring Sydney across home plate.

Tallassee didn’t wait around to get back into the game, scoring two runs in the bottom half of the second to tie things up at 2-2.

A two out RBI double to right center field by Tallassee’s Lexi Love gave Tallassee a 3-2 at the end of the third.

After two singles by Sydney Sanders and Clem put two runners on with just one out in the top of the fifth, Riley took full advantage hitting a two-run double over the center fielders head to retake the lead of 4-3.

Tallassee’s Chloe Davidson tied things back up for her team on an RBI triple to center field in the bottom half of the inning.

Sara Sanders led off the top of the seventh with a walk which led to pretty good things for Ardmore. Harley Rich intended to lay down a sacrifice bunt, and she was able to reach base on an error. Riley came through with the unintended sacrifice, grounding out to first and moving the runners over to second and third. Daly hit a sacrifice fly with one out to give her team a 5-4 lead. Ardmore added one more run in the inning on an RBI single between shortstop and third base by Atchley. That sixth run turned out to be imperative for Ardmore.

Tallassee got one back in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI groundout by Belle Haynes, but a line out to Ardmore’s Brooke Phillips at third ended the game

“That was a heck of a game. Down here, every team is good, and that was two good teams battling it out,” Baugh said. “We had to play flawless to win this game and we played flawlessly.”

Faith Academy Rams 2, Ardmore 0

Singletary started in the circle for the Tigers, pitching seven innings, allowing five hits, two earned runs, one walk with two strikeouts. Offensively, it was a struggle for the Tigers with Faith Academy’s Rycca Hinton in the circle. She pitched a complete seven inning game, allowing six walks with nine strikeouts and only surrendered two Ardmore hits. Singletary had a line drive double to left field in the third and Riley had an infield single on a ground ball to shortstop in the bottom of the fourth.