By Ben Flanagan

Thorsby High School senior Lindsay Pease is a long way from home. A lot of miles separates Alabama and Wisconsin.

Actually, Pease has come to call Thorsby home. She was born in Waukesha but moved at 3 years old.

Either way, the move over to Jacksonville, Ala., shouldn’t be too tough. She’ll enroll at Jacksonville State University this fall to study secondary education mathematics to become a high school math teacher.

Her own math teacher inspired her to seek a similar career path. High school students don’t typically want to become math teachers while still in high school.

But maybe valedictorians do.

Pease learned she would walk away from THS with that distinction late last semester. Needless to say, she was thrilled by the honor, which she considers her greatest academic achievement so far.

“I was extremely excited,” Pease said. “I always dreamed about being valedictorian, and I was so glad I accomplished it.”

She accomplished much more on top of that feat. Pease was a member of the National Honor Society, the varsity softball team, BETA Club, FCCLA, Spanish Club. She also served as the editor of the school yearbook.

Her time spent working on the annual stands as her favorite collective high school memory.

“That’s what my whole senior year revolved around,” she said. “It was everything I hoped it would be. We’ve gotten a lot of great compliments, some people saying it’s the best we’ve ever had so far.”

She’ll have to look back on the yearbook to relive those fond memories as she moves on to that next step she so desires to take. Pease is ready for bigger and better things, though she will never lose sight of where she came from.

“I have a lot of great memories,” she said. “There are a lot of friends that I’m going to miss. Thorsby High School was a great school to go to.”

Pease said she will always cherish learning math and English under Kelly Crawford and Jeanette Williams, respectively. Pease’s parents are Jeff and Shari Pease. She has one sister, Jessica.

By Stephen Dawkins

Jemison was an underdog in the Chilton County Softball Tournament, but coach Leighsa Robinson knew her team was close to turning its season around.
The Panthers had a 1-12 record, hadn’t won a county championship since 2005, and had to deal with a team—Maplesville—that made the state tournament last year and is ranked No. 9 in Class 1A this year and the defending county champion—rival Chilton County.
Surprising everyone except perhaps Robinson, tournament host Jemison won four straight games—including two one-run decisions against CCHS on March 27—to claim the county championship.
“I knew we had it in us,” Robinson said after the final out had been made in a 2-1 win. “We’ve been playing good the past couple of weeks—one inning always snags us.”
With the Panthers down 1-0, Shelby Lopez doubled with one out in the fifth inning. After a sacrifice for the second out, Tabatha Cork drove Lopez home on a hit that glanced just off the glove of leaping Chilton first baseman Lauren Stewart.
Tiffany Guin doubled to plate Cork and give Jemison a 2-1 lead it wouldn’t surrender, but the possibility of that one inning that would doom Jemison always loomed.
CCHS got the game tying run to third base with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning and had runners on first and second with no outs in the sixth. That’s when Lindsey Parrish hit a hard line drive right at Jemison shortstop Lopez, who caught the ball and was able to get out the runner leaning too far off second base and basically end the threat.
The seventh inning, meanwhile, was uneventful—until the celebration began.
“My group of seniors was hungry for this,” Robinson said about a class that includes Brandi Baker, Cork, Samantha Glass, Codi Mims, Amber Simmons and Dallis Vanderslice. “This tournament just proves the leadership I have on this team.”
Chilton scored its run in the bottom of the second inning when Macee Thomas singled with two outs to score Brooke Lewis, but Guin, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, held the Tigers in check the rest of game, allowing only five hits.
In fact, Guin pitched all 28 innings the Panthers were on the field in the tournament and allowed only seven runs. She was on the mound when Jemison topped CCHS, 3-2, earlier in the day. Because of that result, CCHS would have had to beat Jemison twice to win the tournament.
“We wanted to win really bad,” said Guin, a sophomore. “I just tried to get as many three-up, three-downs as possible. I knew I had a great defense behind me.”
Guin also pitched in wins over Maplesville (8-3) and Isabella (4-1) on March 26.
In Game 1, Mims and Cork hit home runs in the first and second innings versus Maplesville.
In Game 3 of the tournament, Isabella’s pitching held the Jemison Panthers in check for most of the game, but the Panthers were quick around the bases from the first inning. Lopez and Tanya Liveoak both scored on balls that got away from the Isabella catcher, and Vanderslice sent home two runs on a single.
Guin struck out eight Isabella batters.
Thorsby, meanwhile, went 1-2 in tournament play.
The Rebels defeated Verbena, 3-1, on Friday but lost to CCHS, 16-1, later in the day.
In the sixth inning of Game 2 of the tournament, Ashlin Hilyer, Kelly Nord and Lindsay Pease each had RBI for Thorsby, and Pease struck out 10 batters.
Sharonda Cooper scored Thorsby’s only run against CCHS.
The Rebels were knocked out the tournament by a 10-5 loss to Maplesville on Saturday.

Scott Mims contributed to this report.

By Stephen Dawkins

This week marks the return of one of my personal favorite sports events: the Chilton County softball tournament.
And, believe it or not, this year’s tournament might be even better than in the past.
While the county baseball tournament the past couple of years has been shortened from a weeklong, double elimination event to a single-elimination, two-day tournament, the softball tournament this season is taking the opposite approach.
In the past, the softball tournament has been played over two days using a standard bracket. This year, the tournament will be stretched over three days, with the first day being pool play and the next two days a single elimination tournament.
Pool play, which will determine seeding for the bracket portion, will be played at two different fields at Thorsby’s Sam Bentley Park. The next two days’ games will be played at Jemison High School, the tournament host.
The new format will guarantee each team three games instead of two. It will also guarantee fans more softball to watch.
The tournament should be competitive once again, with every county team entering the tournament with a legitimate chance to win.
I think that increasing the number of games played will only increase the chances upsets because teams in some cases will be forced to throw their second—or even their third—pitcher instead of relying on one pitcher to make it through the tournament.
Maplesville will likely come into the weekend as a top 10 team, and Thorsby is only a couple of years removed from being ranked themselves. Still, Chilton County, the county’s largest school, has won two out of the last three tournaments.
The fun starts Thursday, and I encourage everyone to attend. You won’t be disappointed.

– Dawkins is the assistant managing editor for The North Chilton Advertiser.

By Stephen Dawkins

Thorsby on Tuesday hit like a team in the midst of a playoff run instead of one playing its first game of the season.
The Rebels softball team pounded out six extra-base hits and 14 hits overall in a 15-5, five-inning win over visiting Verbena, who was also playing its season opener.
Ashlin Hilyer, Heather Day and Katie Barnett recorded three hits each.
Hilyer had two doubles, four RBI and four runs scored. Day recorded one double, four RBI and one run scored; and Barnett contributed a double, a triple, two RBI and one run.
Tiffany Morgan earned the win. She allowed five runs on seven hits and one walk over five innings while striking out nine Red Devils.
Haley Kelley and Chanin Hancock both doubled for Verbena. Kelley walked once, and Hancock, who suffered the loss on the mound, drove in a run.
Verbena leadoff batter Mattie Cleckler went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and one RBI.
Ashlie Shiers drove in two runs.
Thorsby took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, but Verbena scored three runs in the top of the third.
The hosts answered with five runs—two on a Barnett triple—in the bottom half of the frame and had the lead for good.