The county’s two sets of Red Devils are establishing quite the softball rivalry.

Maplesville and Verbena met for their area championship on May 4—with MHS winning 7-6 on a seventh inning bunt single—and on Saturday the teams will meet at Troy University for the upper hand in the Class 1A South Central Regional tournament.

The two local teams are the only two unbeatens remaining in the double-elimination tournament.

Verbena was aided by a no-hitter pitched by Chanin Hancock.

Also on Friday, the two Class 2A teams in The Clanton Advertiser’s coverage area split two games.

Thorsby lost to Choctaw County, 14-0, in its first tournament game but rebounded to avoid elimination with a 14-4 win over Reeltown.

Billingsley’s tournament appearance was similar to Thorsby’s, as the Bears lost to Leroy, 11-1, in their first game but defeated Highland Home, 8-4, in their second.

Billingsley plays Choctaw County Saturday morning in another elimination game.

Thorsby plays the loser of the Leroy-Horseshoe Bend game, which at press time still had not been completed.

Many of the games played at Troy were postponed by rain.

Included in that number was Chilton County, who was scheduled to play Chelsea at 3:30 p.m., but the game wasn’t completed until after 8:30 p.m.

The Tigers lost, 10-0, in five innings and will play the loser of the Demopolis-Pleasant Grove game.

Maplesville won its first game easily, 11-0 over Shades Mountain Christian.

Courtney Baugh, Kiana Andrew and Jordyn Graf each had two hits for MHS.

Autumn Smith was the winning pitcher, striking out 11 batters and allowing two hits in five innings of work.

The Devils had to come from behind in a 12-7 win over Wadley.

Wadley led 4-1 going into the bottom of the third inning, but Maplesville scored four runs to take the lead.

Wadley regained the edge with two runs in the fourth, and padded its lead with another run in the sixth.

But MHS exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Graf and Smith each had three hits, and every player in the starting lineup had at least one hit as the Devils piled up 15 of them.

Courtney Killingsworth was the winning pitcher, allowing six hits and striking out 13 in seven innings.

Verbena first defeated Jefferson Christian, 13-6, and then Edward Bell, 17-0 in four innings.

In the first game, Chanin Hancock went 4-for-5 with a double, and Victoria Fletcher hit an inside-the-park homerun.

Destinee Tyus and Ashlie Shiers had three singles each.

In the second game of the day for the Devils, Allyson Brown had three hits in three at-bats, and Hancock had two singles and a triple in four at-bats.

Hancock was the winning pitcher in both games.

In the first game, Hancock had six strikeouts and allowed six hits. In the second game, she allowed no hits and two walks while striking out seven.