Ridgeland rallies to top Ringgold, 5-3

It’s a formula not good for Scott Harden’s emotional well-being, but the Ridgeland High School softball coach will take a win any way he can get one.

The Lady Panthers rallied from a two-run deficit with four runs in the fifth inning Thursday to clip Region 7-AAA rival Ringgold, 5-3. It was the fourth such comeback win in league play for Harden’s team halfway through the subregion portion of the schedule.

“It puts us in good position going into next week,” Harden said. “This is a big win for us. Ringgold is always a big rivalry for us, and they are one of the better teams in the region. The girls are playing well right now. We’re getting a little leadership and some timely hits.

“I thought we were going to give it away for a minute there. We were able to keep our composure.”

Ridgeland (10-4, 5-1) got a first-inning home run from Courtnee Halls and took that precarious 1-0 lead into the fourth inning, when an error led to the tying run. Ringgold went up 3-1 in the fifth on hits by Adrian Thornton and Erica Bynum and two Ridgeland errors.

After a short but pointed meeting with his players, Harden watched as the Lady Panthers rallied right back. Senior Dana Jones tied the game with a two-run double deep to center, and two batters later, Nicole Daniels untied it with a two-run single to right.

“It’s just nice that as a team we don’t stop when we get down,” Jones said. “We do have some moments when we get down, but we always get back up. I love that about this team. We’re a team, we’re a family and we’re coming together. We lost some good players form last year, and at first I didn’t know how it was going to go. It’s been great so far.”

The biggest question for Ridgeland was in the pitching circle, but junior Hannah Tucker earned her fifth win Thursday, not allowing an earned run and giving up just five hits to a hot team.

“Hannah kept us in it,” Harden noted. “They’ve been putting up a lot of runs, so we were concerned with keeping them off balanced, and she made it happen.”