By By Ryan Satcher
staff writer
Clarkdale ripped Sumrall for nine runs in the first inning and held on to take an easy 10-4 victory over Sumrall in prep softball on Saturday.
The Lady Bulldogs take the best-of-three second-round playoff series with the win and move on to play in the South State championship. Clarkdale will travel to play a doubleheader on Saturday against the winner of the Enterprise-Lincoln/St. Aloysius series. If the two teams split, the third game will be at Clarkdale on the following Monday.
The Lady Bulldogs jumped out to an early lead by sending 13 batters to the plate and scoring nine runs. JorD'an Orr started the rally with a lead-off single. After Orr stole second, Brandi Wright singled. Emily Howard brought both runners in with a hit that went off of the glove of the second baseman to make the score 2-0. Ashley Satcher walked to give Clarkdale runners at first and second with no outs.
Finally, the Lady Bobcats got the first out of the inning with a fielder's choice. The next batter, Bethany Spidle was hit by a pitch to load the bases up. Sabrina Woodall knocked in one run with a single to make the score 3-0. Kaylea Thrash followed with a single to knock in two more runners. Casey Meador hit a ground ball to third and Woodall beat the third baseman to the bag to load the bases for the Lady Bulldogs once again.
Orr followed with her second hit of the inning. She doubled over the centerfielder's head to clear the bases and moved to third on the throw home. Wright brought Orr in with a ground out to make the score 9-0 after one inning.
Clarkdale added another run in the third inning. Wright singled and moved to second on a wild pitch. Satcher singled in Wright to make the score 10-0.
Sumrall avoided the ten-run rule by scoring three runs in the fifth. The Lady Bobcats only got one hit in the inning and took advantage of Clarkdale errors to extend the game.
The Lady Bobcats added another run in the seventh but it was not enough as the Lady Bulldogs took the win 10-4 to improve to 26-9-1 on the year.