WHITEHOUSE — Rusk’s Tatum Goff started the game and delivered three scoreless innings and later came back in to close out her own victory with a scoreless ninth as the Red defeated Blue 8-4 Friday in the Fifth Annual Northeast Texas Fellowship of Christian Athletes Heart of a Champion All-Star Softball game held at Whitehouse complex.  

The Red never trailed, scoring five runs in the second inning and remaining in control throughout. West Rusk’s Makana Morton led the way offensively, going 2 for 3 with two singles, a double an RBI and two runs scored.  

Also notching RBIs for the Red team were Grand Saline’s Zoe Deatherage, Frankston’s Trinity Boggs, Hughes Springs’ Marisol Kennedy, Grand Saline’s Brooklyn Bolin and Elkhart’s Makayla Walker.  

Also scoring runs for the Red team were Paytton Stanley from Grand Saline, Kayla Evans from Elysian Fields, Lindale’s Deanna Sanders, Walker, Troup’s Emily Neel and Deatherage.  

The Red team pitchers were Goff, Kennedy and Bailey Haggerty from Sulphur Springs.  

The Blue team was led in the loss by two hits from Lindale’s Jodi Dehart, while Lindale’s Makayla Ragland and New Diana’s Joelle Newton shared pitching duties through the nine innings.  

Red used two errors by Blue in the second inning to take a 4-0 lead. A one-out single by Stanley was followed by a walk to Walker and single from Deatherage to score Stanley to make it 1-0. Boggs then delivered an RBI single to score courtesy runner Evans. The inning wasn’t finished thanks to an RBI double by Morton that scored Boggs. Saunders reached and later scored on an error to finish off the five runs.  

Trailing 6-0, Blue got on the board in the fourth with Canton’s Kylie Floyd and Sulphur Springs’ Kelsey Wallace scoring two of the three runs as Blue cut its deficit to 6-3.  

Red tacked on two more insurance runs in the eighth. Evans led off with a walk and later scored on a sac fly from Bolin. Walker also reached on a single and scored.  

The Blue grabbed one of those runs back in the bottom of the eighth with Pearl Perry of Hughes Springs reaching on an error and coming home after Wallace also reached but got caught in a run down and stayed alive long enough for Perry to score. That made the final, 8-4. 

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Red  050  100 020  — 8  14  2 

Blue 000  300  010 – 4  6  3 

Tatum Goff, Marisol Kennedy, Bailey Haggerty, Goff and Brooklyn Bolin; Makayla Ragland, Paytton Stanley and Brinklee Driver.