Defense helped Northside keep Howard off the board early. One example in particular came in the second inning.
Sarah Harvin, the first Lady Husky up, singled. She stole second and was on her way home on teammate Abby Mitchell’s hard hit to center field. Enter Lady Eagle Kyle Rosell. She charged the ball, scooped it up and threw to shortstop Stephanie Ruffin at the cutoff spot. Ruffin in turn threw home where catcher Amya Smith administered the tag for the out.
Considering the next hitter walked, which would have loaded the bases with no outs, it had its effect on the outcome of the inning, if not the ballgame.
Instead, Kyle Ussery, who worked six innings and earned the win, fanned the next hitter – rallying from a 3-0 deficit even – and then got the next one to ground out.
Northside led 2-0 – its runs coming in the first – at that point. Howard tied it in the third and had it scored, would have actually had the lead.
In the end, the Lady Eagles’ offense did get in full swing, scoring three in the fifth and four in the sixth for a 10-2 win.
The Lady Eagles put 16 hits in the books in the process. Ruffin had three of those to help lead the offense. She was 3-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored. Smith finished 2-3 with three RBIs and Deja Cheatham finished 2-4 with two driven in.
Northside took on Perry following that. The offense continued to roll. Good thing. It was a necessity. In the end, it took a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh to pull out a 17-16 win.
The Lady Eagles were actually up 11-3 at one point. They scored two in the first, three in the second, one in the third and five in the fourth. The Lady Panthers were only able to come up with one in the first and two in the second. In the fifth, however, they broke loose for eight runs. They added four more in the sixth and one in the seventh. There were 27 hits between the two – 17 for Northside and 10 for Perry, as well as six pitchers – three each.
The Lady Eagles also had seven errors work against them, whereas the Lady Panthers committed two.
The final half of an inning began with a pair of walks – Mallory Gordy and Ruffin. Smith doubled home the first. Jordan Wynn walked but a passed ball while that was progressing enabled Ruffin to come home. Brittany Foust then doubled home Morgan Willis, who came in to run for Smith, and Kadie Martin, who came in to run for Wynn. That made it 16-15.
Foust advanced to third on a passed ball and then tied the ballgame on Kylie Ussery’s single. Cheatham then walked. Rosell reached on an error and Nicole Morales’ sacrifice fly ended the ballgame.
The wins got Northside to 3-4. Perry fell to 1-4.
Howard in turn went over to Warner Robins where it won 5-2. The go-ahead/winning-runs didn’t come until the seventh, however. The Demonettes scored one in the first. The Lady Huskies scored one in the second. Both scored one in the fourth and that’s how it stayed until Howard put up a trey.
Warner Robins began their afternoon by hosting Mount de Sales. That turned out to be an 11-2 loss. The Lady Cavaliers got on board with three in the first. Warner Robins answered with a run but Mount de Sales did likewise in the top half of the third. The Demonettes again answered, but it was for the last time. The visitor put two on the board in the fourth and five up in the fifth and final inning. Hits were six each, but Warner Robins was hurt by four errors; although, four walks and a hits batsman was more the problem in the five-run fifth.
Megan Brown went 2-3 as the only home player to have multiple hits. She also scored one of the runs.
The Demonettes, after opening the season with a win over Northside have now lost five straight. Howard improved to 3-3.
