ROCHELLE- The Wilcox County High School softball team had a busy schedule over this past week with double headers on Monday and Thursday. On Monday, the Lady Patriots split games with Bleckley County in Cochran with a 4-2 win in game one, and an 11-2 loss in game two. On Thursday, Wilcox swept Atkinson County in home region games, with 6-0 and 7-1 wins.

Lady Patriots 4, Bleckley County 2

Carlee Walls opened the scoring for the Lady Patriots in the bottom of the first inning with a home run, but Bleckley County came back to take a 2-1 lead with runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Wilcox used a three run bottom of the sixth to retake the lead before holding on for the 4-2 win.

Chastity Stephens opened up the inning with a leadoff single, and later made it over to third on a couple of passed balls. Walls picked up her second RBI of the game with a groundball to first that allowed Stephens to score. Walls stole second shortly after and Grace Keene followed with a base hit to left that gave Wilcox runners at first and third with one out. Maci Martin subsequently gave the Lady Patriots a 3-2 lead with a sacrifice fly that scored Walls, and Jalynn Keene gave Wilcox an insurance run with an RBI single for the 4-2 lead.

Stephens got the three outs in the top of the seventh to finish the game off for the Wilcox win. She pitched the final three innings allowing just one run on a hit and a walk. Grace Keene and Jalynn Keene combined to pitch the first four innings of the game, and combined to allow just one run and one hit.

Bleckley County 11, Lady Patriots 2

Bleckley County came back to win the second game of the Monday double header after taking a 10-0 lead at the end of the second inning. Anna Tripp had a hit and scored both Wilcox runs in the game. Jalynn Keene had a hit and an RBI, while Walls and Lexie Anderson also recorded hits in the contest.

Lady Patriots 6, Atkinson County 0

In Thursday’s first game against Atkinson County, Stephens pitched a shutout, and came up big in the batting lineup for Wilcox as well. She hit a leadoff home run to open up the bottom of the first inning for an early 1-0 lead, and the Lady Patriots tacked on the other five runs in the bottom half of the fourth.

Grace Keene started the frame off with a walk, and an Atkinson County error on a Martin sacrifice bunt attempt allowed the second Wilcox run to score. JaMerical Marshall and Mackenzie White each had RBI singles in the frame to extend the lead, and Stephens picked up an RBI on a double that scored White. Another Atkinson error allowed Stephens to score in the inning for the 6-0 score line.

Stephens pitched five innings in the game and allowed just three hits while striking out seven batters.

Lady Patriots 7, Atkinson 1

In Thursday afternoon’s second game, Wilcox took control early with a five run top of the first inning.

Tripp hit a one out double and later scored on an error created by a groundball off the bat of Walls, and a double from Grace Keene put Patriot base runners at second and third with just one out. Martin came up next with an RBI single and Marshall followed with a two-run triple for a 4-0 lead. Marshall scored shortly after on a passed ball to make the score 5-0 in favor of Wilcox entering the bottom of the first.

The sixth Wilcox run of the game came on an RBI double from Walls for a 6-0 lead, and the final run of the game came from an RBI hit from Tripp in the top of the fourth for a 7-1 score line with the Lady Patriots on top.

Stephens, Tripp and Marshall each finished the game with two hits and a run scored.

Stephens also picked up the win in the circle by going five innings and allowing only one run on three hits.

All stats were provided by Wilcox County softball’s GameChanger account.

The Lady Patriots now have an overall record of 6-11 on the season and have been climbing up the class A playoff power rankings after the recent victories. Wilcox will be on the road at Charlton County for their next game on Tuesday, August 18, starting at 5:30 p.m.