Lady Vikes’ season ends in playoff loss
Published 9:09 am Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Warren Central’s stellar slow-pitch softball season came crashing hard to Earth Tuesday night.
Mallory Harrison and Kacey Carpenter both homered, and Grenada used a big first inning to propel itself to an 11-1 victory in the decisive Game 3 of a first-round Class 5A-6A playoff series at Lucy Young Field.
Harrison went 3-for-4 with a solo home run and two RBIs. Carpenter’s three-run homer in the sixth inning was the coup de grace, but the Lady Chargers were firmly in control by then.
Grenada scored four runs in the top of the first inning, and pitcher Laine Ward limited Warren Central to just two hits. One of those was a triple by Ashley Coley in the fifth inning. Coley then scored WC’s only run on a ground out by April Lynn.
Warren Central finished the season with a 19-4 record and won the Division 3-5A-6A championship, but lost in the first round of the playoffs for the third time in four seasons. Two of those early exits, in 2012 and 2015, have come at the hands of Grenada.
Grenada advanced to face either New Hope or Ridgeland in the second round.
Grenada won Game 1, 4-2, and Warren Central took Game 2 by a score of 9-5.
In Game 1, Grenada scored two unearned runs in the top of the first inning and twice more in the seventh to win. Coley went 2-for-3 with a run scored for Warren Central.
The Lady Vikes bounced back to win Game 2 behind a strong hitting effort in the middle innings. They scored three times in both the second and third innings, and twice more in the fourth on a two-run single by Kasy Cortezie.
Lynn also had a two-run double and Megan Stewart went 1-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored.