Rockdale Citizen

Photo by Michael Buckelew

COVINGTON -- M.L. King wanted to play the spoiler role for the Lady Rams in their region playoff run and on senior night Tuesday.

After M.L. King went up 2-0 in the top of the first inning, Newton came back and took care of business, beating the Lady Lions 19-4 in three innings of play at Turner Lake Complex.

The Lady Rams answered M.L. King by scoring 10 runs in their home half of the inning.

When the Lady Rams play a weak pitcher and team, they usually keep the bats on their shoulder while waiting for the perfect pitch. But that was not the case against the Lady Lions as the girls came out swinging, getting 10 hits in the three innings.

Kelsey Swinson and Marie Diaz were perfect at the plate. Swinson went 3-for-3 with a double with Diaz going 2-for-2 with a double.

Of Newton's 10 hits, four went for extra bases with Markea Sheppard hitting a triple and Zhan Usher hitting a homer.

"The girls want to hit. They realize it's getting towards the end of the season and they're wanting to hit the ball. It's a lot more fun when you hit one like Zhan did into the trees than it is running down to first," said Newton head coach Virginia Waters.

"We just have to adjust. We played Parkview (on Monday) and they have a good pitcher. Then we come here and it's a slow-pitch pitcher. The ladies did well. They didn't drop their shoulders and they were actually level on their swings."

Newton added four more runs in the second inning before letting M.L. King back on the board in the third with two more runs.

Of the four runs scored by the Lady Lions, two were unearned.

"That was defensive mistakes," said Waters. "We had a couple of walks and those walks came back to score. Those are the little things when we play the really competitive teams we can't do or we're going to be done quick."

The Lady Rams responded by scoring five runs in the third with no outs to end the game by run-rule.

In her three innings of work, Shea McInerny fanned three batters while walking three, allowing three hits and hitting one batter.

The Lady Rams end Region 2-AAAAA play against Langston Hughes, a team that is winless in the region this season, on Thursday.

"The only problem with playing these last two games is that they're in the bottom of the region and it's not going to help us going into the region tournament," said Waters. "Because we have to adjust to pitching, pretty much anything hit you're going to get runners on base."