By By Ryan Satcher / staff writer
March 22, 2002
Northeast Lauderdale High School scored a run in the top of the 11th inning and then held Meridian High School scoreless in the bottom half to win 2-1 in prep softball action played at Northeast Park Thursday night.
Lauren Webb pitched 11 innings and allowed only two hits to get the victory for the Lady Trojans and Erin Murphy went all 11 in the tough-luck loss.
Both pitchers breezed through the first two innings with no trouble. Then in the third inning the Lady Trojans threatened to take the lead. April Harper got a two-out walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. Webb followed with a shot to third that got away from the fielder. She recovered and managed to throw out Webb at home to keep the game scoreless.
The Lady Wildcats got a runner at second with one out in the fourth inning when Murphy hit a double to right, but was stranded. The Lady Wildcats had a runner on second with one out once again in the fifth but a fielder's choice and a strikeout ended the opportunity.
Northeast put together a rally in the seventh when Kara Hull and Jennifer Bristow both singled. A fielder's choice got Hull out at third and a groundout got the Lady Wildcats out of the inning.
The Lady Trojans had another good opportunity in the eighth inning when Webb walked and Katie Bergin singled to start the inning. Raleigh Odom followed with a blast to third that bounced off of the fielder. The shortstop was there for the deflection and threw the ball back to third to get the fielder's choice. Meridian did a great job of keeping the runners stranded and got out of the inning with a popout and groundout.
In the ninth inning the teams had to start using the tiebreak rule. Each team got to put the last batter of the previous inning at second to start the new inning. Jana Olczak went to second for the Lady Trojans and was knocked in by Bristow on a single. The Lady Wildcats settled down and ended the half inning trailing 1-0.
Meridian wasn't ready to quit yet. They put Artesian Boyd at second to begin the bottom of the ninth. Laura Bowles bunted her to third but the next batter struck out and the Lady Wildcats looked to be in trouble. Stephanie Nelson hit the ball into the air to center field what looked like the final out, but the ball was dropped and Boyd was able to tie the game and send it to another extra inning.
Both teams stranded runners on base in the 10th inning. Northeast got a runner thrown out at home on after a wild pitch and Meridian had a runner picked off third to keep the score 1-1.
Northeast once again put Olczak at second in the 11th inning and once again it came away with a run. Hull singled to score Olczak. The Lady Wildcats were unable to get their runner in from third and Northeast took the 2-1 victory.
The Lady Trojans improve to 5-3 on the season and will host Newton County today. The Lady Wildcats fall to 3-5 and play today at Columbus.