By Thomas Sellers Jr.
You can count on a spring showdown between the Munford Lady Cougars and Brighton Lady Cardinals to have the intensity of a thunderstorm and the sting of a bee. The latest installment Thursday night of Munford/Brighton Softball didn’t let the spectators down with great pitching from starters Lady Cougar Sam Scott and Lady Cardinal Seeley Layne. The action was intense on the Brighton Softball Field diamond with Munford senior Courtney Bonaiuto taking a hit to the face sliding into second base. And Scott took a comebacker off the thigh. But trailing 1-0 in the third inning and getting her groove, Scott wasn’t coming out of the game. “I wanted this game since I saw it on the schedule,” she said. “I wasn’t coming out. I know how important this game is for us.” Good thing Scott stayed in the contest for Munford Head Coach Glenn Goulder. Not only did she strike out 10 Lady Cardinals, Scott crushed a two-run homer to help the Lady Cougars prevail 2-1 in the District 13-3A showdown. “Sam was pumped,” Goulder said. “When Sam is pumped she can throw really, really hard. Brighton has some good sticks in the lineup. So I thought Sam did a really, really good job.” It took Scott a moment to get into a groove with Brighton jumping out 1-0 in the first inning. Layne reached base on a walk to spark Brighton. Maddy Cox followed with a single to move the runner into scoring position. Then Brighton catcher Raygan Huffman smacked a single to drive home the first run of the game. Then the game became a pitchers’ duel between the sophomore standouts. Then Layne ran into a little trouble early in the top of the fourth. Munford senior Jodie Duncan was able to get a base hit setting the table for Scott. Layne made one pitching mistake the entire night. With most of her pitches hitting Huffman’s glove on the corners, Layne let one get away over the plate to Scott. The sophomore slugger crushed the ball over the right-centerfield wall without a doubt to make the score 2-1. “It means a lot to me and it means a lot going into the rest of the game,” Scott said. “But it’s important for our league to get this win.” Scott was able to make the one-run advantage stand with a total of 10 strikeouts. The victory came in time for a Munford confidence boost. After narrow defeats in the opening week and a 7-1 loss at Arlington the previous night, the league victory over Brighton might spark the Lady Cougars.
“Not only does it means a lot because it’s a district game but we’ve lost a lot of one-run games already,” Goulder said. “To finally come out on top of a real, real close one will give us some confidence.”
