Lady Longhorns romp in state opener

MONTGOMERY — Marengo Academy (24-3) left little room for doubt in its AISA state tournament opener against Edgewood Friday, marching to a 10-1 win.

Andrea Edmonds anchored the victory in the circle, working seven innings while striking out two and allowing only two hits and one run. Edmonds faced more than the minimum in an inning only twice and limited Edgewood to one fly ball in the contest.

The Lady Longhorns got singles from Katie Tucker and Reese Holifield in the first but proved unable to score.

Marengo opened the flood gates in the home half of the second inning as they hung five runs on the board. Alexia Johnson earned her way to first and ultimately came around to score when Anna Michael Crocker earned a RBI with a free pass while the bases were loaded.

Taylor Barley and Chandler Stenz each singled, coming around to score after a hard grounder by Tucker forced an Edgewood error. Edgewood booted another ball during Holifield’s at-bat, allowing two more runs to score.

The Lady Longhorns’ lone run of the third came off a solo homer by Conner Etheridge.

Crocker and Tucker singled in the fourth before Holifield stroked a two-run single to up the lead to 8-0.

Marengo Academy posted two more runs in the fifth when Edmonds walked and gave way to courtesy runner Caitlin Andrews, who scored on a Stenz single.

Stenz later came around to score on a Crocker RBI single. Stenz sustained an ankle injury while sliding into home on the play. She exited the game. Her status for the remainder of the tournament is uncertain.

The Lady Longhorns are scheduled to play the winner of the Ashford and Jackson contest at 4 p.m.