By By Robby Atkinson / staff writer
Oct. 7, 2003
The Meridian High Lady Wildcats wanted go into the final lap of the 2003 softball season on a high note. The Lady Wildcats did just that on Monday night at Northeast Park by taking an impressive 13-0 shutout win over the Northeast Lauderdale Lady Trojans.
The Lady Wildcats took full advantage of Northeast Lauderdale's errors and scored nine runs, six as a direct result of the miscues, in the fourth inning.
The Lady Trojans also struggled at the plate, recording only three hits against Meridian High pitcher Hallie Pearson.
The Lady Wildcats tallied the first three runs of the game in the first inning to take a fast lead. Two runs crossed the plate due to a throwing error and Meridian took a 2-0 edge over the Lady Trojans. Amber Felton drove in the third run of the contest on an RBI single to extend the lead to 3-0.
Carsheena Blanks led the third inning off for Meridian with a double and later crossed the plate on a single by Brandy Limerick to move the score to 4-0.
The Lady Wildcats put the game away in the fourth with nine runs. Abby Hawkins led the inning off with a single and later scored on one of the six errors by Northeast Lauderdale in the fourth. The last three batters in the lineup all reached base for the Wildcats and the walls started to cave in on the Lady Trojans.
Northeast Lauderdale made three straight throwing errors that allowed three more runs to score and make the score 8-0. Tiffany Hickman notched an RBI moments later on a sacrifice fly to center to lengthen the lead to 9-0.
Felton once again came up with a big hit for the Wildcats with a double and and RBI and increase the lead to 10-0. Laihre Simcox followed with an RBI triple and Hawkins added a run scoring double to round out the offense and propel the Lady Wildcats to the victory.
Meridian improved to 10-15 overall for the season and Northeast Lauderdale fell to 16-10. Meridian returns to action at home today against Quitman, and Northeast Lauderdale entertains Philadelphia.