Lady Knights snag Division 5-3A title
By By Marty Stamper / EMG sports assistant
Oct. 7, 2003
DECATUR The West Lauderdale Lady Knights wrapped up the Division 5-3A slow-pitch softball championship with a 14-4 rout of Newton County in five innings Monday night.
Both teams finished 11-1 in 5-3A, with their only losses coming to each other. West lost 9-4 earlier to Newton County, giving the Lady Knights the title by run differential following their 10-run win Monday.
Sommer Jones, Katie Moulds, and Kristi Lantz led the Lady Knights' 13-hit attack. Jones, who was also the winning pitcher, went 4-for-4 with a double, a home run and four RBIs. Moulds was 2-for-3 with a pair of two-run homers.
Lantz was 3-for-4 with a double, a triple and three RBIs.
Both teams will host first-round playoff games on Saturday. West (24-4) will host the No. 4 team from Division 8-3A, while Newton County (22-6) will host the No. 3 team from Division 8-3A.
In addition to getting 13 hits, the Lady Knights also benefited from seven Newton County errors.
Newton County, which had a 14-game win streak snapped, had eight hits, all of which were singles. No Lady Cougar had more than one hit.
Lantz snapped a 1-1 tie with an RBI double in the top of the third. After an RBI single by Jones, Moulds hit her first homer of the game just inside the foul pole in left field for a 5-1 lead. Holly Herrington reached on a three-base error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Katie McAlister.
Newton County took advantage of three errors by the Lady Knights to score three runs in the bottom of the third. Joy Cavenaugh had an RBI single with another run scoring when the ball skipped past an outfielder to the fence in right-center. Another error two batters later allowed Cavenaugh to score as the Lady Cougars battled to within 6-4.
West broke the game open with seven runs in the top of the fifth. Kayla Eubanks had a two-run single, Lantz ripped a two-run triple to the fence in right field, Jones had an RBI double down the left-field line, and Moulds belted a two-run homer to left-center.
