It's pretty obvious Texas High's girls came ready to play during the first round of District 16-5A play.
In the 10th-ranked Lady Tigers' last two district games at home they scored a combined 12 runs in the first inning. They only scored one Tuesday against Greenville, but it came on a home run over the center-field fence by freshman Bailey Groom.
Texas High (19-3, 6-0) went on to shut out the Lady Lions, 6-0, behind the pitching of sophomores Mabry Smith and Lindsey Egger.
Egger pitched the final four innings to get the win after Smith struck out nine Greenville batters in the first three frames.
"We got good defense and pitching tonight; some of our outs at the plate were really loud," THS coach Robbie Hatfield said. "Anytime you go 6-0 in the first round of district it's pretty good. It all starts over Friday here against Hallsville."
While Groom's first varsity roundtripper was all Smith and Egger needed offensively, the Tigers added eight more hits and five runs.
Kaitlyn Cross singled to start the Tigers' second inning and promptly stole second. She moved up on Raegan Erskine's sacrifice bunt and scored Ryann Williams' grounder
to shortstop.
Ashley Wyrick reached on an infield error with one out in the third, racing home on Braley Turner's double to right-center. Smith helped her cause with a single to right that brought Turner home.
The Tigers stranded four baserunner the next two innings, but got a pair of insurance runs in the sixth.
Pinch-hitter Alexis Bolden singled to right, racing to third on Kenzie Dickson's double down the left field line. Pinch-hitter Madison Prince made it 5-0 on a grounder to shortstop, and Dickson raced home on an infield hit by Wyrick.
"I thought Mabry pitched well; she's been working hard on her control," Hatfield said. "She's going to continue working hard. We've got to get ready for the next six district games now."
The Lions' only two hits were singles by Allie Walden. She was the only Greenville runner to reach second base all night, and she was erased on a doubleplay.
Greenville 000 000 0 0 2 3
Texas High 112 002 x 6 9 1
Katie Shaw and Jacke Jacobs; Mabry Smith, Lindsey Egger (4) and Kylee Spriggs. WP-Egger; LP-Shaw. HR-THS, Bailey Groom, 1st, none on.