Lady Wolves Shutout Lady Bears in Region 23 Opener

WESSON – The Co-Lin Softball team opened their time in the Region 23 Semifinal Tournament by playing Southwest. The No. 1 seeded Lady Wolves blanked the No. 9 seeded Lady Bears with an 8-0 shutout victory.

The first two innings of the game were scoreless, but the Lady Wolves broke the stalemate with three runs in the bottom of the third as Brooklyn Reine (Kentwood, LA) hit a leadoff double to get the offense started. Later in the inning, Ayari VanBlaircom (Daphne, AL) crushed a 1-1 pitch over the fence in left field for a two-run home run giving the Lady Wolves a 2-0 lead. Later in the inning, Emilie Williams (Summit) hit a two-out double extending the inning, and then scored on an RBI-single by Morgan Chisolm (Madison) pushing the lead to 5-0.

The Lady Wolves then struck for five runs in the bottom of the fourth as Abby Burnette (Brookhaven) and Stella Roberts (Raymond) hit back-to-back singles while Reine drew a walk to load the bases with no outs. Noelle Laiche (Gonzales, LA) then hit an RBI-single scoring Burnette while Roberts then scored as VanBlaircom drew a walk and then Brelie Phillips (Conehatta) hit a sacrifice fly scoring Reine and increasing the lead to 6-0. Later in the inning, Chisolm drew a walk to load the bases with two outs while Annie Poole (Brookhaven) then hit a two-RBI single scoring Laiche and VanBlaircom and extending the lead to 8-0.

The Lady Bears then got two runners on with two outs in the top of the fifth, but a popout brought the potential rally to an end securing the victory for the Lady Wolves.

The Lady Wolves totaled eight hits as Ayari VanBlaircom, Emilie Williams, Morgan Chisolm, Annie Poole, Abby Burnette, Stella Roberts, Brooklyn Reine, and Noelle Laiche had one hit each. VanBlaircom led the Lady Wolves in RBIs with three while Poole had two with Chisolm, Laiche, and Brelie Phillips adding one RBI each.

Addison Lindley (Madison) improved to 20-3 with the complete game win allowing three hits with one walk and five strikeouts.

Co-Lin improves to 45-5 overall and will now face off against the No. 5 seed Northwest in the Winner's Bracket game. First pitch between the Rangers and the Lady Wolves is set for 1 p.m., on Tuesday, May 4th at Lady Wolves Field in Wesson.