Clarkdale's Howard snags big catches

By By Ryan Satcher / staff writer
Aug. 13, 2003
The Quitman Lady Panthers fought hard against Clarkdale on Tuesday night, but in the end the Lady Bulldogs made the plays and took an 11-8 win in slow-pitch softball action.
A pair of excellent catches by Emily Howard in the outfield helped Clarkdale hold on for the win to improve to 2-1 for the year.
Quitman couldn't quite come away with the big plays when it had an opportunity to take the victory.
The Lady Bulldogs battled for two runs in the first inning as Ashley Bye doubled in Savannah Satcher and Megan Potate to make the score 2-0.
Quitman answered with a run as Gabby Morgan scored on a double by Rebecca Riley.
Clarkdale added two more runs in the second as Satcher tripled in Lindsey Dawkins and Potate brought Satcher in with a double.
Quitman took advantage of Clarkdale errors in the third inning to score three runs to tie the game at four.
Clarkdale came back with a big fourth inning as the Lady Bulldogs plated six runs to take a big lead.
Bethany Spidle and Howard singled to start the inning. Satcher followed with a hard liner that the second baseman couldn't hang on to.
Potate walked to bring in the first run of the inning, and Alyssa Bye followed with a single to knock in another run.
Ashley Bye followed with a two-run single, and Whitney Drachenberg brought in two runs with a triple. She later scored on a sacrifice fly by Brandi Wright to make the score 10-4.
After scoring a run in the fourth, Quitman scored two runs in the fifth inning on a two-run single by Aswandra Cooks and had runners on first and second when Howard made her first sliding catch to get Clarkdale out of the inning.
The Lady Panther also scored a run on a walk in the sixth inning to make the score 10-8 and had the bases loaded with two outs when Howard came charging in for another diving catch to get the Lady Bulldogs out of the jam.
Clarkdale added a run in the seventh on another Satcher triple and held for the win.