Ridgeland falls to Northwest, Pickens in Region 6-AAAA play
After seeing the game rained out on two separate occasions, the Northwest Lady Bruins, who entered the week with a lofty No. 1 state-ranking in Class 4A, finally made the trip to Rossville this past Wednesday to face off with Ridgeland.
The Lady Panthers would try to hang in against the state powerhouse, but the Lady Bruins would ultimately prove to be too much in a 16-4, fiveinning victory.
Northwest led 8-0 after the top of the second inning, but Ridgeland would get two runs in both the bottom of the second and the bottom of the third.
In the second inning, Marianne Beliveau walked, took two bases on an error and scored on a Makayla Cope sacrifice fly. Maggie Dickson would later reach on an error that sent Brittany Holder to second and Holder would come in on an RBI-single by Vanessa Hart.
An inning later, Bryanna Goldsmith drew a walk while a wild pitch would send courtesy runner Taylor Blevins scampering for second base. Blevins would score on a Danielle Cross RBI-single before Beliveau would deliver a single. Northwest would get the next two outs on strikes, but Cope would work her way for a walk and Dickson would come through with a runscoring single.
However, Northwest got one of the runs back in the top of the third and then put up another five-spot in the top of the fourth before tacking on the final two runs in their last at-bat.
Dickson was the only Lady Panther with two hits on the day. Goldsmith pitched the first three innings, allowing five earned runs on nine hits with three walks and two strikeouts, while Hailey Carroll threw two innings of relief. She allowed three earned runs on four hits and a walk. Both teams committed three errors on the night.
The Lady Panthers managed just four hits and committed four errors on the road Thursday night in a loss in Jasper. Dickson, Beliveau, Goldsmith and Kylie Collins all had singles for the Ridgeland in the Region 6-AAAA loss.
Carroll started the game in the circle and pitched four innings. She allowed just one earned run on four hits and two walks and three strikeouts.
Goldsmith pitched the final 1.1 innings in relief for the Black-and-White. She also allowed just one earned run on two hits and one walk with two strikeouts for Ridgeland (2-15, 0-5).