West Lauderdale stands alone
on top of Division 5-3A standings

By By Austin Bishop / EMG regional sports director
Sept. 1, 2004
History was definitely on West Lauderdale's side in its 7-1 slow-pitch softball win over Southeast Lauderdale on Tuesday night.
A Large crowd saw the two-time defending Class 3A State Champion Lady Knights score three runs in the first inning, then add three more in the fifth on the way to gaining sole ownership of the Division 5-3A lead.
"I think it was real important (that we win this game)," veteran West Lauderdale head coach Jerry Boatner said. "Southeast has come in with a lot of confidence . They've won six or seven games in a row, are undefeated in the district, and they have a lot of momentum. I think it was big that we beat them here under the circumstances."
Southeast rolled into the game with a 10-2 overall record and a 4-0 mark in the division.
SEL head coach Ryan Miller says it is important for the Lady Tigers to forget about Tuesday's game and focus on the rest of the division schedule.
"It told them (the Lady Tigers) that it's still early in the season," Miller said. "It's a long way from being over. We just need to continue to improve and get better."
After Southeast Lauderdale scored a single run in the top of the first thanks to a single by Heather Ward and a pair of West Lauderdale singles, the Lady Knights used four singles and three SEL errors to go up 3-1 in the bottom of the inning.
West Lauderdale, now 8-0 overall and 5-0 in division play, added one run in the fourth on singles by Haley Campbell and Ashley Helms and an outfield error.
But the big blows came in the bottom of the fifth. Southeast had challenged in the fourth, but left the bases loaded and then had two runners on base in the fifth, but again failed to score.
With a runner on first and one out, West Lauderdale's Kayla Eubanks lined a triple to the right-field wall and Josey Matthews followed with a triple to left. WL added the third run of the inning two batters later when Sommer Jones delivered an RBI single.
"I was thinking 'get it past them,'" Eubanks said. "We hadn't been hitting the ball that well earlier and I knew we needed to get it going."
Boatner liked the way Eubanks was thinking, and was certainly pleased with the results of the fifth inning.
"After we got those two runs I thought it was going to be hard for them to come back on us," Boatner said. "We played good defense and we got clutch hits."
"Defensively we went to sleep in that inning," Miller said. "The outfielders weren't positioned right. They blew it open there. I felt like if we could keep it 4-1, or even 5-1, we still had a chance."
Eubanks and Matthews led West Lauderdale's 12-hit attack with a triple and single each, while Morgan Gullette had three singles and Jones had a pair of RBI singles.
Lindsey Graham, Heather Ward and Eli Bowen had two hits each for SEL, which had eight total hits on the night — all singles.
West Lauderdale returns to action at home on Thursday at 7 p.m. against Newton County, while SEL travels to Neshoba County to take on division foe Choctaw Central at 6.