Arabia Mountain’s Makayla Smith slides in safely at home during the Lady Rams 18-3 win over the Southwest DeKalb Lady Panthers on Wednesday at Arabia Mountain. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Arabia Mountain put together two big innings and closed out Southwest DeKalb 18-3 in three innings in a non-region high school fastpitch softball game at Arabia Mountain on Wednesday evening.
The Lady Rams (7-3) had seven hits and took advantage of nine walks and two hit batters to score the 18 runs.
Southwest DeKalb (6-6) had tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the second on a two-run groundout into shallow right field by Jayla Jones. Arabia Mountain responded with seven runs in the bottom of the inning to take control of the game.
Three walks coupled with a RBI single by Tania Shoulders and a shallow pop over third base by Madison Heath scored two more runs as the lead ballooned to 10-3 after two complete.
Bailee Canty walked to start the top of the third for Southwest DeKalb, but Heath coaxed two groundouts and a fly ball to center to set down the next three batters and bring the Lady Rams to the plate in the bottom of the inning.
Southwest DeKalb’s Zariah Morris prepares to bunt against Arabia Mountain. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Arabia Mountain loaded the bases for Kennidi Johnson to start the bottom of the third and Johnson responded with a line shot that found the gap in left-center field for an inside-the-park grand slam to up the margin to 14-3 with not outs in the inning.
Shoulders, Shyla Mitchell and Lindsey Thomas also drove in runs in the eight-run inning to finish off the game.
Tania Shoulders finished the game 2-2 to lead all hitters. Ashlyn Barber had the only hit for Southwest DeKalb in the contest.