After a slow start, the Greenville Tigers softball team roared back against Excel but fell short in an 8-7 loss on Tuesday.

Excel put seven runs on the board in the first four innings, while Greenville’s lone run came when Marvia Scott scored in the bottom of the third.

“We put ourselves in a hole early instead of playing defense,” said head coach Donna Sunnycalb. “We had a lot of errors.”

Greenville started warming up in the bottom of the sixth inning, when the Tigers got runs from Cortnee Meyers, Hollie Halford and Kairee Newton.

Abbey Blackmon also came through with an RBI in that inning.

The Tigers also put up three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to go along with RBIs from Halford and Newton.

One of the key plays of the seventh inning came when Scott was thrown out at second base on an attempted steal.

“We had some good wheels on base, and Marvia had stolen at least five bases earlier in the game,” Sunnycalb said. “They caught her on number six, but up until that point, they hadn’t been making that throw.”

Scott finished the game 3-4 from the plate, while Meyers was 1-2.

Newton went 2-3 with two singles and an RBI.

With the area tournament coming up, Sunnycalb said Greenville will need to work on their defense.

“We haven’t been playing too well in the field lately, and we need to do that,” she said.

The matchup with Monroe County was scheduled for yesterday, but due to precautions from the AHSAA concerning swine flu, that has been moved to Tuesday.