LUMBERTON — The old saying goes that it’s hard to beat a team three times.
What about shutting them out three times?
The Lumberton softball team defeated Purnell Swett 9-0 Thursday in the United-8 Conference tournament semifinals, holding the Rams scoreless for the third time this season.
Top-seeded Lumberton (22-3) advances to the United-8 tournament championship Friday against No. 3 Cape Fear, which beat No. 2 South View 1-0 in Thursday’s other semifinal game.
No. 5 Purnell Swett (10-13) is likely to narrowly miss the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4A state playoff field, with 32 spots available and the Rams currently at 35th in the RPI ranking for the 4A East Region.
Lumberton shut out Purnell Swett 16-0 on March 26 and 13-0 on April 26. Halona Sampson pitched all three games for the Pirates, allowing six hits Thursday with one walk and nine strikeouts in seven innings, earning the win. Kamryn Locklear took the loss for Purnell Swett.
Lumberton scored one run in the first, two in the second, one in the third, two in the fourth, two in the fifth and one in the sixth. The Pirates outhit the Rams 14-6, while Purnell Swett also committed seven errors in the game.
Tiara Stueck had three hits including a double with two RBIs for the Pirates. Jaelyn Hammond had two hits including a double and Sampson had two hits and an RBI. Carlee Register had one hit and two RBIs and Leea Wilkins, Alona Hanna, Alyssa Stone and Aniya Merritt all had one hit and one RBI apiece. Jayla Hunt and Cameron Honeycutt also had one hit each for Lumberton.
Merritt stole her 35th base of the season, breaking her own single-season program record.
Kamryn Locklear and Kiersten Strickland had two hits each for Purnell Swett and Jayla Graham and Chloe Chavis had one hit each.
Lumberton split the regular-season series with Cape Fear, its championship-game opponent. The Pirates won 3-0 in Fayetteville on March 5; the Colts won 4-3 on April 17 in Lumberton. Cape Fear beat the Pirates 3-1 for the conference tournament championship last season.
In other local softball action Thursday, Midway defeated St. Pauls 4-0, behind three-run innings in each of the first two frames. The win clinched the Southeastern Athletic Conference regular-season championship outright for the Raiders (15-3, 10-0 Southeastern); St. Pauls (16-6, 8-2 Southeastern) finishes second in the conference and will earn an automatic bid to the 2A state playoffs.
Most Popular
Comments / 0