Lady Bulldogs sweep past Piney Woods

By By Steve Swogetinsky / special to The Star
Oct. 8, 2004
The Clarkdale Lady Bulldogs cruised past Piney Woods Thursday night in the first round of the State Class 2A slow-pitch softball playoffs.
Clarkdale won the first game of the best two-out-of-three series 18-0 and claimed the second contest 19-0.
Clarkdale, the first place team out of Division 7-2A improved its record to 24-4. Piney Woods was the fourth place team out of the Division 6-2A.
The Lady Bulldogs will visit East Marion on Tuesday in the second round of the playoffs.
The Lady Bulldogs outhit Piney Woods 17-2 in the first game. Clarkdale could have scored as many runs as it wanted, but Roberson started holding runners at third and took two outs in the bottom of the fourth to end their final at-bat. The junior varsity team played the last inning of the first game and the last two innings of the second game.
Clarkdale scored three in the first, seven in the second, seven in the third and one in the fourth.
Ashley Bye started the offensive fireworks with a three-run homer in first inning of the first game. Thirteen batters went to the plate in the second inning and banged out eight hits. During the scoring outburst, Chassidy Roberts belted a triple, while both Ashley Bye and Whitney Drachenberg hit a double. The third inning was about the same as Clarkdale basically was taking target practice. Alyssa Bye hit a home run to pace Clarkdale.
Bye led off the second game with a homer for the Lady Bulldogs. Clarkdale jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first inning of the second game, and never looked back. The Lady Bulldogs added three in the second, seven in the third, one in the fourth and one in the fifth.
The Lady Bulldogs outhit Piney Woods 21-2 in the second game.
Drachenberg, the winning pitcher of both games, went 4-for-4 in both games and hit a triple and a double in the second game. Kim Seale went 3-for-3 in the second game.