[06/30/02]CLINTON Solid defense and clutch hitting ruled the day Saturday at the Coca-Cola slow-pitch Softball All-Star Game at Traceway Park in Clinton.

The North all-stars scored four of their six runs with two outs and threw two South runners out at the plate to win game one of the best-of-three series 6-4. The North held the South to just two hits to win game two, 10-2.

Columbus’ Yolanda Ellis was selected MVP for the North, while St. Martin’s Kenya Satchfield took the honor for the South.

Elizabeth Davidson of Columbus drove in two runs with a single, walked twice and scored a run to lead the North, while Hatley’s Lori Vaughan and Amory’s Heather Harris each had RBI singles.

Brookhaven’s Ginny Dunaway went 2-for-3 and scored a run for the South, and West Lauderdale’s Hayley Scarborough added two hits.

Warren Central’s Marilyn Landers, the two-time Vicksburg Post slow-pitch player of the year, didn’t have as good a day. She started game one as the extra hitter and went 0-for-3 with a strikeout, a pop out and a line out. In game two, she also went 0-for-3.

Landers said the high, looping pitches from Northwest Rankin’s Jennifer Johnson gave her problems. Landers took the first pitch for a strike and fouled the second pitch off in each at-bat before finishing with a weak blooper.

One landed foul for a strikeout, while the other two were hit harmlessly to infielders.

“I’m not used to the high pitches, not the ones that arch,” a dejected Landers said.

Landers wasn’t the only South player to struggle against Johnson, however. Her teammates managed five hits in the first four innings, all of them singles. Ellis, the North’s rightfielder, threw a runner out at the plate in the third inning to keep the game scoreless, then the North rallied for three runs in the bottom of the inning.

Johnson’s RBI single gave the North a 1-0 lead, and Davidson followed a pop out by Ellis with her two-run single to make it 3-0. The North added a single run in the fourth on Vaughan’s RBI single, but the South rallied for three unearned runs in the fifth to cut it to 4-3.

Johnson’s alert throw home as West Lauderdale’s Amber Joyner tried to score from second on a booted grounder kept the North in the lead, and the North was able to put it away in the bottom of the inning.

A single by Ellis and a walk to Davidson set up an RBI single by Harris, and Tupelo’s Rebekah Crider drove in the game’s final run with a sacrifice fly to make it 6-4.

Johnson allowed back-to-back singles to Moss Point’s Kenya Smith and Newton County’s Betsy Clark to start the sixth, then retired the last six South batters in order to end the game.

“We didn’t hit the ball as well as we could have, and the ones we did hit we hit right at somebody,” said Warren Central coach Lucy Young, who was one of the South coaches for the all-star game.

In her final at-bat of game one, Landers hit a line drive to shortstop in the sixth. She made up for it with some solid defense in the bottom of the inning.

Entering the game at second base she usually plays shortstop, and started game two there Landers had a hand in all three outs.

She cleanly fielded a grounder to start the inning, then caught the throws on consecutive fielder’s choices for the last two outs.

“She did fine on defense,” Young said.

It didn’t help ease the disappointment from the rest of the game for Landers, however. She simply stared at the field and hoped for a better performance in game two when asked about the first game.

“Hopefully it’ll be better the next game,” said Landers, who hit .427 with seven triples and scored 35 runs for WC last fall.

Young, who coached Landers for four years at WC, said that reaction was a reflection of her player’s competitiveness.

“Marilyn is a competitor, and anytime she doesn’t play up to par she’s the first one to feel the effects of it,” Young said.