By By Will Bardwell / staff writer
Sept. 3, 2003
The good news for the Meridian Lady Wildcats is that they have averaged 12 runs per game over their past two contests.
The bad news is that all 24 of the runs accounting for that average came in a win against Forest Hill last Thursday, which was followed by an 8-0 loss to Northeast Lauderdale Tuesday night at Northeast Park.
The Lady Trojans (10-3) hammered the Lady Wildcats defense for 17 hits, and the Northeast Lauderdale defense did not allow a base runner past second base all night.
Lady Trojans head coach Chris Harper gave much of the credit for the win to senior pitcher Kim Crawford, who allowed only four hits.
The Lady Wildcats threatened to break up Crawford's shutout in the sixth and seventh innings. In the top of the sixth, Meridian's Amber Felton hit a one-out double. The next batter flied out before Lindsay Lang drew a two-out walk, but Crawford got out of the inning on a fly ball in the next at-bat.
Crawford got into trouble again in the top of the seventh, after a fielding error allowed J'Quandra Hickman to reach base. Sarah Denham hit a two-out single for another two-on, two-out threat, but Crawford got a pop-up out of the next batter to preserve the shutout.
Meridian head coach Susan Frazier said her team did little to offset Crawford's pitching.
Frazier said her team's youth and inexperience are accounting for its offensive inconsistency.
Northeast Lauderdale was almost as efficient offensively as it was on defense. The Lady Trojans tallied at least two hits in every inning except for the bottom of the fifth, when a Shelley Odom single was their only hit.
Most of Northeast Lauderdale's scoring came in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Lady Trojans entered the frame leading 4-0, and they increased their lead on Jayme Gardner's three-run triple.
Gardner, who finished with three hits, scored two batters later on a ground ball by Crawford to make the score 8-0.
In the junior varsity game earlier in the evening, Northeast Lauderdale defeated Meridian 7-2.