By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The Brighton Lady Cardinal senior trio of Lindsey Morrissette, Haley Rider and Marissa Moss earned their third straight District 13-3A Softball Tournament tonight.
The District 13-3A Softball crown is staying in Brighton.
For the third straight year the Brighton Lady Cardinals claimed the championship of the league with a 3-2 victory over the Dyer County Lady Choctaws on the Brighton Softball Field.
Behind the solid pitching of Marissa Moss and timely hitting in the fifth inning, Brighton was able to outlast the team that tied them for the regular-season title.
“They’ve got a good team and have improved a bunch,” Brighton Head Coach Robin Jacobs said of Dyer County. “And they have a good pitcher. But again we played that hard schedule for this game right here. To win 3-2, that’s why we played Chester Co., South Side, Lexington and all those hard teams.
“These guys have won their third in a row,” Jacobs continued. “I know some people counted them out a couple of weeks ago because we didn’t do so good. We’ve loss like three or four in row. Then we come back and beat the No. 1 team in the State in Lexington. We beat Dyer Co. 2-1 in 9 innings up there.”
The Lady Choctaws beat Brighton in the first game 1-0 in Tipton County. The Lady Cardinals even up the score with the extra inning victory in Newbern.
Tonight’s championship game was Brighton’s chance to break the season tie and earn the title. Dyer County was ahead 2-1 in the fifth inning when the Lady Cardinals rallied.
After the duo of Amanda Perry and T’Mya Johnson reached base with singles, Kailee Hunt placed down a bunt leading to Perry scoring. A few batters later Brighton catcher Currie McIntyre hit a laser back to the Dyer County pitcher leading to Johnson crossing home plate with the go-ahead run.
“It put the stress down because I wasn’t doing anything good for my team,” Moss said. “I wasn’t hitting the ball. So they got those hits for me. That made me really happy.”
Jacobs overheard his pitcher’s comments and told her the Lady Cardinals wouldn’t have been in a position to win the championship if it wasn’t for her pitching.
“I really don’t know how I’m doing,” Moss acknowledged. “It’s all just happening for me. Currie is doing a good job calling pitches.”
Moss’ command of the plate closed out the final two inning for Dyer County and led to Brighton going 3-0 in the District 13-3A Tournament.
“This is five in a row,” Jacobs said. “We’ve been playing good defense and getting enough runs. Marissa’s pitching has gone through the roof. She’s has like 30 strikeouts in the three games. She’s done a great job pitching. We get to play in the Regionals at home. We’re going to take it and run with it.”
