CELINA-The Clay County High softball girls and Monterey High baseball boys were winners in key games played here on Friday.

The Clay County softball team rebounded from a defeat a day earlier to run-rule the Monterey girls and stay in the thick of the race for a top seeding in the upcoming. 

The Monterey baseball team won a slugfest with Clay County just a few yards away to clinch their fifth straight District 7-A title. 

Softball

Friday’s 11-1 win over Monterey gave the two teams a split of their regular-season series, which wound up being played on consecutive days. 

The Lady Bulldogs won the game in large part thanks to a six-run first inning, eventually pulling out to their 10-run margin in the sixth to end the contest. 

Leanna Meadows, Katie Kerr, Sarah Ogletree and Amelia Kirk all had multiple extra-base hits in the contest, while freshman Sydney Roach smacked a home run. 

CCHS wasn’t so fortunate the day before, falling 7-4 in Monterey in their second 7-A loss of the regular season. The Lady Wildcats jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings and held off a bit of a late Lady Dawg rally to win.

Clay County trailed 7-1 heading into the sixth inning, but pushed three runs across to make it 7-4, but the scoring for both teams ended there.  Meadows struck out eight and walked only two in taking the tough loss. 

Monterey was scheduled to host Red Boiling Springs on Tuesday in a very important district game. RBS beat Monterey 6-1 in their first meeting this season. CCHS, Monterey and RBS are all locked in a battle for the top seeds.  The three teams entered last week tied for the district lead with one loss each. 

Clay County’s remaining district games are both against Jackson County. 

Baseball

Monterey exploded for 16 runs in a three-inning stretch to win 21-8 and wrap up their fifth straight 7-A regular-season crown. 

The game wasn’t without fireworks for the Bulldogs, as William Bailey and Matt Brown smacked back-to-back home runs in the first inning. Bailey wound up two for four on the day, with a pair of RBIs. 

Fellow senior Tyler Edwards went 1-4 and also had a pair of RBIs. Monterey will host the 7-A tournament starting on Monday, May 4

Heading into the week, it looked like the Bulldogs would post a fifth-place finish in district play, which would put them in a first-round tournament play-in game at Pickett County. The first-round play-in games are single elimination, with the tourney moving to double elimination after that.