Purnell Swett 6, West Bladen 3
ROWLAND – Purnell Swett capitalized on a trio of West Bladen errors to score 4 unearned runs and defeat the Lady Knights 6-3 Saturday in the opening round of the Robeson County Slugfest Softball Tournament.
Two runs in the second and three more in the third gave the Lady Rams a 6-0 lead. “We seem to have one bad inning against really good teams,” said West Bladen Coach Joey Autry. “Some of it comes from our youth, but we didn’t quit. We battled.”
Leading 6-0 in the bottom of the fourth, the first two Lady Rams cracked singles, but Lady Knight pitcher Sophia Singletary worked out of the inning by inducing a pair of soft pop-ups and a force-out at third base.
West Bladen rallied for 3 runs in the top of the fifth. Freshman Carley Dawson beat out an infield hit, and Singletary reached base on an error.
Junior Logan Autry slapped a grounder to third, and Dawson escaped a rundown and slid home with the first Lady Knight run. Two outs later junior Jenna Dove lined a 2-run single to centerfield that plated sophmore Alise Pait, the courtesy runner for Singletary, and Autry.
Autry and junior Kathryn Schultz legged out infield hits to begin the West Bladen seventh, but the next three batters were retired to end the game.
Dawson batted 2-3 and scored a run to lead the Lady Knight hitters. Dove belted the 2-run single, and Autry and Brisson added one hit each. Autry and Pait scored one run each.
Freshman JaiLeana Deese lined a first –inning double and scored on a throwing error to give the Lady Rams an early 1-0 lead.
Junior Destiny Locklear’s double and two West Bladen errors produced 2 Swett runs in the second. One of the errors was a disputed call where Lady Knight firstbaseman Laikyn Pait came off the bag to snag an errant throw and appeared to tag the runner going to first base.
Sophmore Megan Barton’s double, Destiny Locklear’s bloop single, an error and sophmore Chelsea Jones’ 2 –run single accounted for 3 Swett runs in the third.
Singletary allowed 9 hits, 2 walks and 6 runs – 2 earned. Taylor Edwards picked up the win for the Lady Rams giving up 3 runs on 5 hits while striking out two.
Destiny Locklear batted 2-2 with a double to lead the Swett hitters. Deese finished 2-3 with a double, and Barton slugged a pair of doubles.
The Lady Knights, now 4-5, will play host South Robeson Monday at 1 p.m. The Lady Mustangs lost 4-1 to Fairmont Saturday night. Purnell Swett will play Fairmont at 7 p.m. Monday.
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