Newton County takes win over Neshoba Central
By By Rocky Higginbotham / special to The Star
Aug. 30, 2002
PHILADELPHIA One week ago today, Neshoba Central's Lady Rockets handed defending Class 3A state champion Newton County a loss on the Lady Cougars' home field.
That loss, coincidentally, dropped Newton County from second to eighth in this week's statewide slow-pitch softball poll.
Thursday night, the Lady Cougars re-paid the favor.
Newton County came out swinging with eight hits in the first three innings and knocked off homestanding Neshoba 8-3.
The Lady Cougars, 34-3 a year ago, improved to 6-1 with the win and won't see action again until Tuesday when they pay a visit to Carthage. Neshoba, which fell to 6-4, hosts Newton High Tuesday.
In Thursday night's matchup, the teams combined to leave 17 runners on base. In fact, both blew opportunities by leaving the bases loaded in the first inning.
Newton County did scratch out a run in the first, however, as an error and three consecutive singles put the Lady Cougars ahead to stay before the rally stalled.
The Lady Cougars put together five more hits in the top of the third inning, when they pushed their lead to 5-0.
Suzanne Chaney, Kristen Chaney, Dominique Mapp and Joy Cavenaugh all had back-to-back singles in the third and Jennifer Smith delivered a two-out, RBI single.
Neshoba got a run in the bottom half of the third when Sarah Williamson scored on Dacie Brantley's RBI single, but the Lady Rockets didn't score again until their final at-bat.
Chaney, Chaney and Mapp again put together back-to-back-to-back singles in the fifth for Newton County, with Cavenaugh following with a sacrifice fly to make it 7-1.
After another tally in the sixth made it an 8-1 game, Neshoba scored its final two runs in the bottom of the seventh when Lindsey Smith belted a two-run double into the right-field corner.
Smith finished 2-for-4 with the double and two RBIs, Williamson was 3-for-4 and Brantley 2-for-3 to lead Neshoba.
Kristin Chaney was 3-for-4 with a pair of runs; Suzanne Chaney was 2-for-4 with three runs; Mapp went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Cavenaugh was 2-for-2 with three RBIs for the Lady Cougars.
Smith, a sophomore, was making her first-ever varsity start on the mound. She walked two in five innings before giving way to Suzanne Chaney.
Lindsey Smith (6-4) was charged with the loss for Neshoba.
