Lady Raiders claim District AAA win over Cougars
The Riverfield Academy Lady Raider softball team claimed its first district AAA win last Tuesday with a convincing 20-8 victory over the Central Hinds Cougars.
Senior pitcher and second baseman M. Parker got the win on the mound for the Lady Raiders as the raiders evened their district record to 1-1.
Tied at 8-8 after three innings, the Lady Raiders’ bats exploded for 16 hits behind M. Allen, R. Gibson and T. Hixon, who each had three hits in the contest. J. Sanders and E. Barker also had multiple hits.
Next, the Lady Raiders defeated Park Place Academy 6-5.
Trailing the entire game and 5-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Lady Raiders tied the game 5-5 in the inning. E. Barker got the rally started with a lead off single. M. Parker followed with a double and R. Gibson drew a walk to load the bases. M. Lewis drove M. Parker in with a single and M. Allen Scored via a sac fly from J. Sanders. R. Gibson tied the game on an error on J. Payne’s grounder in the infield.
Pticher M. Bennett shut Park Place down in the top of the eighth inning to set up the comeback heroics in the bottom of the eighth for the Lady Raiders.
M. Parker led off with a double and moved to third on M. Allen’s ground out. R. Gibson followed with a FC to set up T. Hixon’s walk off single to score M. Parker to give the Lady Raiders an important 6-5 District AAA win to improve to 2-1, 12-5 overall.
M. Bennett scattered eight hits to pick up the pitching victory. M. Lewis led the raiders with a 4-4 day at the plate. M. Parker, J. Sanders and E. Barker also had multiple hits for the Lady Raiders 12-hit attack.
Coach Kyle King stated that a comeback, no quit win like this will go a long way in building his team’s confidence. King’s team will travel to Cleveland, Miss., Saturday to participate in a 16-team tournament.
“These games Saturday will give us an idea of how we stack up against some of our competition awaiting us down the road,” King said. “We are working hard to stay the course and play our best ball as the season progresses. Go Raiders!.”