LITTLE RIVER ACADEMY — The Thrall Tigerettes opened district play in dominant fashion Tuesday, March 3, defeating Little River Academy 9-2 behind a strong performance from freshman standout Reese Madsen.
Madsen led the Tigerettes at the plate, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs, including a key two-run double that helped break the game open in the middle innings. She now leads the team with a .600 batting average, seven home runs and 22 RBIs.
Senior pitcher Miley Pokorny delivered a strong outing in the circle, throwing a complete game while allowing two runs on seven hits and striking out 11 batters.
Both teams struggled to generate offense early, as neither side managed to push a run across during the first three innings. That changed in the top of the fourth inning when Thrall erupted for seven runs to take control of the game. The Tigerettes got the rally started with an RBI single from freshman Addison Dickens. Junior Adelynn Bishop followed with a two-run single to extend the lead. Madsen then delivered a two-run double to left field, and junior Kenzie Engelke capped the scoring in the inning with a sacrifice fly.
Little River Academy responded with a run in the bottom half of the fourth inning after reaching base on a dropped third strike, trimming the deficit to 7-1.
Thrall added two more runs later in the game to secure the victory. Madsen drove in her third run of the night with an RBI double, and the Tigerettes plated another run on a groundout to extend the lead to 9-2.
With the victory, Thrall improved to 11-7 overall and 1-0 in district play. The Tigerettes closed their two-game series with Little River Academy on Friday before returning home to host Franklin on Tuesday, March 10, at 6 p.m.
