North Pike head softball coach Sonya Wallace admitted her Lady Jaguars were “lucky” to pull out a one-run Game 1 victory over the Columbia Lady Wildcats on Tuesday.
In Game 2, the Lady Jaguars left nothing to chance.
North Pike belted out a season-high 24 hits, including six home runs, in its 21-6, six-inning beatdown of the visiting Lady Wildcats at North Pike.
The victory gave the Lady Jaguars a two-game sweep of their first-round series in the Class 4A state slowpitch softball playoffs. North Pike also won the first game, 6-5.
North Pike (20-5) advances to the second round and will host Quitman on Saturday at 3 p.m.
“We’re all hitting right now, and that’s what it’s going to take (to win the state championship),” Wallace said.
North Pike actually trailed 5-4 after the first inning of Game 2 despite Marissa Jenkins’ three-run home run that highlighted the Lady Jaguars’ opening frame.
But the Lady Jaguars quickly erased the deficit on Rachel Kelly’s two-run home run to left field with one out in the second. The blast also scored Savannah Johnston, who led off the inning with a double.
The Lady Jaguars padded their lead when Lauren Wells doubled and, following a walk to to Jenkins, scored on Breanna McKenzie’s single to right.
Charneissa Gordon followed with a three-run home run to center that grew North Pike’s advantage to 10-5.
Alana Hopkins then singled, went to second on Shelby Abdul-Hadi’s single and scored on a Johnston single to left that made it 11-5.
Columbia plated a run in the bottom of the second, but North Pike answered with solo home runs from Wells and McKenzie in the top of the third to make it 13-6.
The lead went to 14-6 in the fourth when Abdul-Hadi legged out a one-out infield single and scored when Jana McEwen’s grounder to the shortstop was misplayed for a three-base error.
A double by Jenkins and RBI single by McKenzie in the fifth made it 15-6.
The Lady Tigers piled it on in the sixth, capped by a two-run home run from McKenzie, her second round tripper of the game. Jenkins added a two-run single, McEwen an RBI single and Wells a run-producing sacrifice fly in the frame.
McKenzie’s two homers on the night gave her a team-best seven on the season. She also said the Lady Jaguars’ power surge was a message to their next opponent.
“You’d better be prepared,” she said, “because it’s coming.”
In Game 1, Danaraye Parks’ sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth inning scored Hopkins from third base to break a 5-5 tie and put North Pike ahead for good.
Hopkins reached on a fielding error to open the inning and moved to second when Abdul-Hadi’s infield grounder was mishandled for a second error.
Johnston lined to right field, moving Hopkins to third. Parks then followed with her sacrifice fly.
North Pike took a 2-0 lead in the second. Gordon walked and Brianna Brister doubled with one out, sending Gordon to third. She scored on Abdul-Hadi’s infield groundout. Brister came home on a Columbia fielding error.
The lead went to 4-0 in the fourth on singles by McKenzie and Gordon, an RBI single from Hopkins to plate McKenzie and Johnston’s infield groundout that scored Gordon.
But Columbia crept to within 4-2 on a pair of solo home runs in the fifth.
North Pike added a run in the bottom of the fifth on a double by Wells and an RBI single from Wells.
The Lady Wildcats tied the game in the top of the sixth on Kalyn McNabb’s three-run home run.
