Jets fall to Buckhorn 8-3 to end season
The James Clemens softball team falls to Buckhorn in the qualifying game at the regional tournament May 9. (Record Photo/Nick Sellers)
By Nick Sellers | Staff Writer
HUNTSVILLE – In the James Clemens softball team’s first game of the regional tournament at the Metro Kiwanis Sportsplex in Huntsville, the Jets faced the Buckhorn Bucks and fell 6-1. The Jets played again on May 8 and won 4-2 against Grissom to earn a rematch with the Bucks.
James Clemens tried to buck the trend against the intra-Area foe but ended up falling 8-3, ending the Jets’ season and chance to go to the state tournament in Montgomery.
Buckhorn got the scoring going in the bottom of the first inning with a run by Tekiah Alexander. The Bucks had runners in scoring position with one and two outs, but could only muster the one run.
The score stayed at 1-0 until the top of the fifth inning, when James Clemens came through with some offense of their own.
A triple by leadoff hitter Shelby Booker started the inning, then Caroline Payne hit a single to score Abbey Payne. After a few more runs, the Jets took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning, when Buckhorn’s offense responded in a big way.
The Bucks scored seven runs in the fifth inning, as Alexander plated another score. Seniors Catherine Coffey and Destiny Wright also scored in the inning, which would be James Clemens’ Aubri James’ last inning to pitch. Emily Jacklin, who pitched previously against Buckhorn in the tournament, was brought in for the sixth inning.
Jacklin, who was in the batting lineup, got on base and was in scoring position in the sixth and seventh innings but, like the other Jets, couldn’t get through to home and conceded the game to Buckhorn 8-3.
“I just told [the seniors] how proud I was of them and that wherever this program goes going forward, it will always be because of the foundation they laid,” James Clemens coach A.J. Daugherty said after the game.
The Jets lose four seniors, including center fielder Abbey Payne and second base Renee Bolduc, who both signed with community colleges.
“We have some great kids,” Daugherty said. “They work their tails off. I don’t’ think anybody would have pegged us to do that this year. This team has a lot of grit, and we’re going to continue to move forward.”
Buckhorn joins Sparkman as the other team from Region 4 to go on to the state finals.
