Chambers softball, baseball prepare for playoffs

BY KATIE MCELVY

THE LAFAYETTE SUN

LAFAYETTE — Chambers Academy’s softball team powered its way to the top seed in the AISA state tournament after a strong showing at the regional seeding tournament at Lagoon Park, securing back-to-back wins over Fort Dale and Lowndes behind timely hitting and solid pitching.

Chambers Softball

The AISA hosted a regional seeding tournament at Lagoon Park in Montgomery to prepare the brackets for the state tournament. The Lady Rebels first faced Fort Dale. With one runner on, Tenley Benefield and Blakely Allen both singled in the bottom of the first to score two runs.

Fort Dale took advantage of two uncharacteristic Lady Rebel errors and took a 2-3 lead in the game in the top of the third. In the bottom of the inning, Allie Paschal homered on a fly ball over the left field wall to tie the game back up. 

After holding Fort Dale scoreless in the fourth, Abigail Downey led off the bottom of the inning with a single. Emmalee Jackson then hit a fly ball to right field, and an error sent in both Downey and Jackson across the plate to take back the Lady Rebel lead 5-3. 

Fort Dale cut the lead to one off a double in the sixth, but big hits by both Payton Earl and Paschal in the bottom of the inning gave Chambers the 6-4 victory. 

Samantha Lovelace got the win in the circle, striking out six batters. 

The Lady Rebels then played Lowndes. Chambers led a close 2-1 going into the bottom of the third. Then, their bats got hot. With bases loaded twice in the inning, Allen and Jackson both singled, knocking in runs to give Chambers an 11-1 win. 

Earl got the win on the mound giving up three hits and striking out four. 

Chambers will now enter into the state tournament as the number one seed in the top half of half of the bracket. They will face Southern Academy at noon on Thursday in the double-elimination tournament.

Chambers Baseball

After receiving a bye in the first round of the playoffs because of their number one seeding, the Rebels will host Bessemer in the second round in a best of three series. The Rebels have faced Bessemer twice this season with Bessemer besting them 3-5 earlier in the year and Chambers taking a 12-4 win just two weeks ago.