Lady Blue Devils beat North Pike 5-4 in Game 1 of South State Championship
Summit,MS—The Pearl River Central Lady Blue Devils are one win away from advancing to next week’s Class 5A State Championship series after beating North Pike 5-4 in Game 1 of the South State finals on Friday night.
PRC scored two runs in the top of the first inning. Jayden Davis walked and Taylor Kauzlarich singled. They moved up one base on a wild pitch. Madison Gower grounded out to the shortstop which plated Davis. Shelby Archer singled to left field to score Kauzlarich.
Jade Latham delivers a pitch in the bottom of the second inning at North Pike
Centerfielder Madison Gower after the game
The Lady Blue Devils scored in the third when Archer singled off the left shin of Jaguar pitcher Natalie Deer to score Gower who had reached base on a fielder’s choice earlier in the inning. Deer left the game after the hit by Archer.
Keigen Pearson pushed the lead to 4-0 for PRC with an RBI double to left field in the fourth inning that scored Alahna Lee who was inserted as the courtesy runner for the catcher Madi Glidewell. Glidewell had reached based with one out on an infield single deep in the hole to the shortstop.
North Pike scored a run in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly to centerfield from Linley Smith that scored Jenna Brock who led off the inning with a double to deep centerfield.
Jade Latham, who got the win in the circle with 10 strikeouts, hit a solo homerun over the leftfield fence to give PRC a 5-1 lead.
The Jaguars got another run in the sixth when Madison Moak doubled and scored on Brock’s single.
Head Coach Tony Labella after the win in Game 1
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Bridjett Jones-Talbert fouled off three two strike pitches and then singled to centerfield to keep North Pike’s chances alive. Joli Spears followed with a two run homerun to close the gap to 5-4 before Latham got the last out on a fly ball to centerfield.
Game 2 gets underway on Saturday (today) at 3:00pm in Carriere.
Game 3, if necessary, will follow.
WRJW 1320 AM coverage begins at 2:50pm with the pre-game show.
