SEL nabs 5-0 win at home
By By Will Bardwell / staff writer
September 14, 2004
When Southeast Lauderdale's bats went cold on Monday, the Lady Tigers' sizzling defense was more than enough.
Southeast turned three double plays and held Morton scoreless in a 5-0 Lady Tigers slow-pitch softball win.
"That's what we've been talking about. We've got to be consistent on defense," said Southeast Lauderdale head coach Ryan Miller, whose team is 14-3 overall and 7-1 in Division 5-3A play. "I'm glad we played defense for all seven innings, because there have been games where we've had a couple of innings lapse."
But there was no such lapse against the Lady Panthers. Southeast Lauderdale countered four Morton hits with two double plays in the first two innings and built an early lead along the way.
Heather Ward put the Lady Tigers on the scoreboard in the first inning when Mallarie Bowen reached base on an error. Megan McMullen drove in Martika Ivy in the second inning for a 2-0 Southeast Lauderdale lead, and McMullen added another run later in the inning on a shot to right field by Jessica Rose.
The Lady Tigers pounded out 14 hits against Morton, including at least one in each inning. Ward's 3-for-4 outing led Southeast Lauderdale, along with two-hit performances by Lucy Ruffin, Lindsey Graham and Ivy.
Nine of the Lady Tigers' 10 starters collected at least one hit.
"We haven't been hitting up and down the order, but we've been putting hits together," Miller said. "Tonight (Monday) we had a stretch where we left some runners on base, but we've been able to play good defense."
After falling behind 3-0 in the second inning, Morton kept Southeast Lauderdale from doing further damage, even though the Lady Tigers had seven hits over the next three innings.
In the sixth inning, Southeast Lauderdale broke through and added two insurance runs. Graham smashed a triple that scored Ruffin, and one batter later, Graham scored on Ward's RBI single.
The Lady Tigers scattered 11 hits by Morton.
Southeast Lauderdale travels to Carthage on Thursday for another Division 5-3A contest.
