The Lady Panther softball team defeated Burke County 12-5 in five innings on the road Sept. 11, handed Baldwin a 10-1 loss in Liberty County on Saturday and brought down the Statesboro Lady Blue Devils 6-1 at home Monday. LCHS improved to 6-6 overall and 2-2 in Region 3-AAA.
Coach Jerome Standard said the win against Baldwin was significant because it helped his team solidify the fourth-place spot in the region.
The hometown girls took a 5-0 lead in the first and added two more runs in the second off a double by Diamone Johnson and a run scored by Dominique Sibley, who was hit with a pitch at the plate. Johnson later had an RBI and Charlotte Coursey had an RBI.
In the third inning, the girls added another run and went up 10-0 before Baldwin finally scored a run in the fifth.
"It’s a big region win," Standard said. "They were tied with us going in, so we’ve moved up a notch. We are playing better. We started early, led early and finished the game strong. So, I’m proud of them."
On Monday the Lady Panthers hosted a non-region game against Statesboro and won 6-1 in five innings. LCHS player Johnson hit a homerun over the centerfield fence.
"Today is the best game we played as a team," the coach said. "We’ve did things right. We got people on, we moved people over and we got the big hits. We made a lot of plays and we also did one other thing that had not happened … here it is right here the game ball goes to Diamone Johnson for her homerun."
Johnson hit a double and a single before nailing the homer. Defensively, Sibley led the team again, throwing runners out at first, tagging runners out at third, throwing a score out at home and snagging a hit down the third base line for an out.
Lady Panther Jordan Struble pitched the win in both games.
The Lady Panthers play Richmond Hill at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow in what the coach said is a decisive game for third in the region.
