SOFTBALL

South Side softball evens series with Chester Co.

Michael Odom, USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

 

With around two weeks remaining in the regular season, the South Side softball team is right back in the race for the District 14-AA No. 1 seed.

The Lady Hawks (18-4-1) evened the season series with Chester County with a 6-1 win at home.

Here are five takeaways from the game:

1. There are still four teams that can earn the No. 1 seed in the District 14-AA tournament. Lexington (5-1) and Chester County (3-1) are on top after both split with South Side. Lexington and Chester County are scheduled to play twice next week.

South Side (6-2) is one game back with two games against McNairy Central to play. McNairy Central (4-3) is in fourth place, but the Lady Bobcats still need to play South Side twice and Chester County twice.

2. It is hard to deny that the Lady Hawks might be the hottest team in West Tennessee. South Side has won 13 straight games, and in the past three days, it has beaten Lexington 3-1 and Chester County 6-1.

"We are doing a better job communicating on and off the field, and that is something that we have been missing," South Side coach Lori Benson said. "We have also started hitting the ball."

3. Chester County's Blair Mims showed her power at the plate as she hit a solo home run in the fourth inning to cut South Side's lead to 2-1 at the time.

4. All six of South Side's runs came in two innings with two coming in the third inning and four in the fourth inning. Three of the six runs were unearned. Kelsey Turner and Kalani Kuroda had RBI hits in the third inning.

Sydney Shelton and Kuroda had RBI hits in the fourth inning, while Anna Taylor brought a run home on a sacrifice fly.

5. Sydney Shelton has led the Lady Hawks in batting average most of the season, and there was nothing different on Thursday. Shelton was 3-for-3 going into her final at-bat when a groundout to third base ended the perfect night.

"I seeing the ball and making contact," Shelton said. "I knew that we had to get hits to get some runs in."

Reach Michael Odom at michodom@jacksonsun.com or 731-425-9754. Follow him on Twitter @JSWriterMichael.