Published: August 20, 2008 08:49 am      

Southeast softball

By Rocky Higginbotham

Sports Editor

The cross-county matchup between homestanding Southeast Lauderdale and Northeast Lauderdale was still up for grabs heading into the bottom of the fifth inning Tuesday night.

Then, with one swing of the bat, Brittany Pounders put an end to the suspense.

Pounders launched a grand slam home run deep over the left-center field fence to spark an eight-run rally which helped end a rout-shortened, 13-3 win for Southeast.

"Pounders really got into that ball," Southeast coach Mack Fanning said of the blast, which followed an intentional walk to teammate Lainie Simcox and gave Southeast a six-run cushion.

The win lifted the Lady Tigers to 4-4 on the year heading into another cross-county tilt Thursday at West Lauderdale. Northeast fell to 4-3 and will host both Newton County (5:30) and Enterprise (7 p.m.) Thursday at Northeast Park.

In Tuesday night's win, Southeast grabbed a 4-1 lead in the first inning.

After Kaley Hull doubled and scored to put Northeast on top, Southeast got run-scoring singles from Taylor Bailey, Shelby Sheppard and Tiffany Roulier in the bottom of the first.

Northeast got two runs back in the top of the third when the Lady Trojans got hits from Hull, Jennifer Hembree and Kandance Knight. Southeast then made it 5-3 in the third when Simcox lifted a home run over the left-field wall.

In the fifth, Paige Sheppard and Denisha Knight got the rally started with one-out singles. Simcox was walked to load the bases and Pounders followed with her mammoth grand slam shot to make it 9-3.

Bailey then reached on an error and Shelby Sheppard and Laci Maxwell followed with singles to load the bases again. Roulier brought in a pair of runs with a two-run double to the wall in left-center, and pinch-hitter KeKe Newell's sinking fly ball to right-center field was misplayed — producing two more runs to end the game.

Southeast out-hit Northeast 14-8, and Fanning was especially proud of his team's defense.

"Paige Sheppard made a couple of really nice plays and (Pounders) made a big play early," Fanning said. "I think maybe that helped us gain a little confidence later on."

Pounders reached all three times and finished 2-for-3 with a homer, double and four RBIs, while Roulier was 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs.

Paige Sheppard was 2-for-3 with two runs; Simcox was 1-for-1 with a homer, two walks and three runs; Bailey was 2-for-3 with two runs; Shelby Sheppard was 2-for-3 with an RBI; and Erin Conley was the winning pitcher.

Hull was 2-for-3 with a pair of runs to lead Northeast, which had singles from Jennifer Hembree, Knight, Charly Boswell, Thara Hall and Allison Heflin. The Lady Trojans had beaten the Lady Tigers 8-0 earlier this season.

"You can't take anything away from Southeast because they can hit the ball really well," Northeast coach Chris Harper said. "I'm not real disappointed with this loss, but our hitting has got to get better. We've got some young hitters who just aren't being patient."