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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

CHILDERSBURG – The Vincent Yellow Jackets made the short trip down U.S. 280 on Friday, April 12 to take on the Childersburg Tigers, and they came back with a pair of big victories.

Vincent swept the doubleheader against Childersburg, winning the first game 8-4 before earning a 17-4 victory in game two.

In the first game of the day, Vincent struck first with a one-out RBI single by Jaci Wallace in the top of the first to give the Jackets an early 1-0 lead.

The Tigers responded in the bottom of the first with a two-run single that gave the hosts the 2-1 advantage.

However, Vincent responded in a big way in the top of the second with a Chloe Mims RBI double, a run off a wild pitch and an RBI double off the bat of Kylie Newton to put the Jackets back in front with a 4-2 lead.

That lead held all the way through the top of the fifth when Harley King hit a sharp ground ball that led to an error and two more runs scoring, giving Vincent a 6-2 lead.

Childersburg got another two-run hit in the bottom of the fifth, this time off a one-out single to cut the deficit to 6-4.

However, the Jackets restored their four-run lead in the top of the seventh off RBI singles from McKenzie Fields and Ava Waldrop to close out the 8-4 win.

Wallace had a dominant day in the circle to keep the Tigers at bay as she took 10 strikeouts in a complete-game seven innings and worked her way around four runs, eight hits and two walks.

That paved the way for an even bigger offensive game in the second half of the doubleheader.

After a scoreless first two innings, Childersburg struck first with two runs in the bottom of the third, but that was the last time the hosts would be in front.

Vincent erupted for six runs in the top of the fourth, including a Maggie Walker RBI single, bases-loaded walk, back-to-back RBI singles from Newton and Wallace and a run scored off a catcher error during Fields’ at-bat to give the Jackets the 6-2 advantage.

After a one-two-three bottom of the fourth, the Jackets got back to work in the top of the fifth and extended their lead to 8-2 off RBI singles from Walker and Natalie Schiller.

The Tigers got a run back in the bottom of the frame off a ground out, but Vincent piled on nine runs in the top of the seventh to pull away for the win.

After a lead-off single by Waldrop, Walker singled to get on base and an error advanced her to third and brought Waldrop home.

Two batters later, Natalie Schiller hit an RBI single to send Walker home from third and make the score 10-3.

Newton singled to keep the hits rolling, and that was followed by four straight scoring plays. Wallace doubled to score a run, Fields hit an RBI single on the ensuing at-bat, an RBI groundout added another run and a wild pitch brought Fields home for the 14th run of the game.

Childersburg couldn’t get out of the inning and hit Jaci Young and issued a walk to load up the base for Abigail Wright.

Wright singled to score a pair of runs, and Gracie Phillips followed that up with an RBI single of her own to give Vincent a 17-3 lead.

The Tigers took advantage of an error in the bottom of the seventh to score one more run, but Mims shut down Childersburg right afterwards with a strikeout to secure the 17-4 win.

Mims went the distance and earned five strikeouts in seven innings while limiting the Tigers to three earned runs, four total runs, seven hits and two walks.

Walker finished the game a perfect 4-for-4 with a walk, four runs and two RBI. Newton went 3-for-6 with two runs and two RBI and Wallace finished 3-for-5 with two RBI.

Vincent will hope to parlay those wins into success in area play as it faces Southeastern in a doubleheader on Tuesday, April 16.