By By Tony Krausz / assistant sports editor
Oct. 15, 2003
The Northeast Lauderdale High School softball team wasted little time to punch its ticket to the second round of the 4A playoffs.
After scratching out a 5-3 win over the New Albany Lady Bulldogs in the opening contest of the best-of-three series, the Lady Trojans pounded their way to a 13-1, five-inning win in game two at Northeast Park.
Lady Trojans senior Jana Olczak and eighth grader Shelley Odom led off the second game with back-to-back singles.
Northeast first baseman Amber Gray drove in Olczak in the team's third at bat of the first with a double, and left fielder Capri Norris smashed a double of her own to bring home Odom and Gray for a 3-0 lead.
Lady Trojans right fielder Jayme Gardner brought home the last run of the first inning with a single for a 4-0 advantage.
New Albany tallied its lone run of the second game off pitcher Kim Crawford, who won both games for Northeast, in the bottom of the first inning.
After a scoreless second, Norris led off with a double in the third, and she came home on an error from hit from third baseman Jennifer Bristow, who scored during the same sequence on an overthrow, for a 6-1 lead.
Lady Trojans right-center fielder led off the fourth inning with a double, and Olczak brought her home with a single for a 7-1 lead.
Norris smacked her second double of the game in the fourth to score Olczak and Gray, who reached base on a single, for a 9-1 advantage.
Northeast put the game away in the fifth inning with an RBI single by Eliza Gavin that brought home Hull, who led off the inning with a double, and Olczak notched a two-run double to produce the final margin of victory.
In the opening game of the second-round series, the Lady Bulldogs struck first scoring as left fielder Kristen McMillen scored in the second inning for a 1-0 lead.
The Lady Trojans answered the run with two of its own in the bottom half of the inning.
Northeast catcher Jessica Love brought in the two runs with a double to shallow right field to score Bristow and Gardner for a 2-1 lead.
Olczak extended the Lady Trojans lead to 3-1 crossing the plate on an error, as the Lady Bulldogs misplayed a hit to right-center field by Norris.
Bristow brought in another run for Northeast in the fifth inning with an RBI single that scored Gray, who hit a one-out double in the second at bat of the inning.
The two teams exchanged runs in the sixth inning to give the Lady Trojans a 5-2 edge entering the top of the seventh.
After recording a lead off fly out, Crawford allowed back-to-back singles in the seventh inning.
New Albany's Anne Elise Parks flew out after the two singles, but first baseman Victoria Bishop ripped an RBI single in the next at bat to reduce Northeast's lead to two runs.
Crawford induced a groundout to end the game, as the Lady Trojans played strong in the field in both games.
Northeast committed just two errors over the 12 innings of play, one in the first game and one in the second game.