By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The Tipton-Rosemark Academy Lady Rebels were firmly in control during their league opener against the Fayette Academy Lady Vikings.
The TRA faithful at Lady Rebel Field on March 23 did have a couple of moments of trepidation, with starting pitcher Lanie Howe not getting many calls after the second inning. The Lady Vikings put up a couple of runs in the fourth inning before eventually succumbing to a 14-3 decision in five innings.
“Lanie struggled a little bit tonight because she didn’t get a lot of calls,” TRA Head Coach Johnie Sanfratello noted. “I heard some say she was getting squeezed a little bit.
“She has been 9-1 for us — lights out,” he continued. “Low ERA and it’s been demanding on her. In the past she hadn’t thrown a lot of games back to back. She wants that ball every day, and she’s dominated some good hitting teams.”
Howe limited the Fayette Academy lineup to 2 hits on the evening. Meanwhile the Lady Rebels took advantage of 12 hits and six Lady Vikings miscues to earn the 11-run victory.
“My main goal from an offensive mind is I want us to have the least amount of strikeouts we’ve ever had,” Sanfratello said. “I think in 2014, which happened to be a pretty good year, we had 95 that year. We also didn’t play as many games. I can’t tell you where we’re at right now, I know we’re in double digits. But we’re not at 20 yet.”
Lady Rebels to record a hit against Fayette Academy were Lola Sprenkle, Brentley Rogers, Howe, Peyton Sykes and Hailey Crull. Aniston Glass and Lauren Pickett had three hits each in the winning effort.
Howe ended the game with a three-run inside-the-park homer in the bottom of the fifth inning.
“The name of the game for us, because we have a lot of girls who can run, is getting baserunners,” Sanfratello noted. “If we limit those strikeouts and turn them into baserunners, we’re going to be OK. That’s been our thing, to limit those strikeouts, so we can score more runs.”
Despite having a tight window to throw strikes, Howe tallied 9 strikeouts on the evening while giving up four walks.
Howe has been a driving force for the Lady Rebels good start in 2026. With the move back to Division II-A, TRA has to compete against Fayette Academy, Trinity Christian and old foe University School of Jackson.
Howe will get pitching help from eighth grader Rylee Chipman and freshman Reese Park.
Sanfratello said Park is learning how to fill up the zone with strikes and Chipman has displayed a talent to put spin on the ball leaving hitters confused.
“She must be doing something because they swing under it, swing over it,” he recalled. “She keeps us in the game too. It’s a whole different style from Lanie but she’s a great complement to her.”
From pitching to 11 quality batters in the lineup, Sanfratello said the season has been going so well that his Lady Rebels won a game 3-2 over Dyer County with no hits.
“It’s been going really well,” he said. “I think that makes us 16-3. We lost a terrible game to Briarcrest. I take full responsibility for that. We were up 7-0 and I changed things a little bit too early. Went to the bench probably too early and we didn’t hit after that. Totally on me.
“We lost a game down at the beach to Franklin that we shouldn’t have lost,” Sanfratello added. “It is what it is. Then we lost a game to Hernando, the No. 1 team in Mississippi 5-4. We should have won that 4-3. It is what it is right now.”
To summarize things, Sanfratello said his team has the ingredients to make a special run in 2026.
“I have learned that our pitchers are going to keep us in it,” he concluded. “We have got to do what we know how to do offensively. Defensively we’re going to be right there because our pitching has been lights out so far.”
