By Staff
SAFE AT HOME Clarkdale's Jord'Dan Orr slides in to score during the Lady Bulldogs sweep of Seminary on Thursday. Photo by Paula Merritt / The Meridian Star.
By Jeff Byrd / staff writer
Oct. 18, 2002
It's playoff time and no one seems to know that more than the Clarkdale Lady Bulldogs.
Clarkdale shrugged off a late-season slump and on Thursday evening, an early 5-0 deficit, to sweep away Seminary in a first-round Class 2A playoff series at the Clarkdale High Softball Park.
Clarkdale used a 7-run third inning to take game one 8-6. They then turned in its best game in nearly a month with a 9-1 series clinching win in game two.
Clarkdale, now 19-11 on the season, will advance to a second-round 2A series at Mercy Cross High School in Biloxi on Saturday. A game time has not been set. Seminary closes out its season at 11-6.
CHS coach Rick Roberson was pleased with the sweep, especially with his team's defense.
Clarkdale had 26 hits in all during the two games. Senior Jor'Dan Orr had a huge series. She led off game two with a solo home run and then followed it with an RBI hit that landed mid-way off the fence in dead-center.
Clarkdale 8
Seminary 6
The struggle continued through the first two innings of the opener. Seminary plated four runs in its first at bat to grab an early lead.
They then made a nice defensive relay to nab Orr who was trying to reach third on a hit by Brandi Limerick in the bottom of the first. Orr was tagged out and Clarkdale's first at bat died quietly.
Down 5-0 in the third, Clarkdale got it going. Bethany Spidle led off with a hit to center. Orr then doubled. Following an out, Megan Potate singled to right center scoring Spidle and Orr to make it 5-2.
Seminary then made two costly errors opening the door for a big Clarkdale inning. Emily Howard and Whitney Drachenberg both reached. Following a walk, Kayleigh Thrash and Sabrina Woodall delivered RBI singles to tie the game at 5-5.
Brandi Wright then capped things with a two-run double to make it 7-5.
Clarkdale added a run in the fourth when Howard reached on a third Seminary error and then scored on a hit by Savannah Satcher.
It stayed 8-5 until the seventh when back-to-back errors allowed Terra Blue to score for Seminary to make it 8-6. A pop up to Potate at short ended the game.
Thrash, the winning pitcher, had three hits for Clarkdale. Orr had two hits and Howard scored two runs. Brittney Lee, Vanessa Gibb and Christy Crosby all had two hits for Seminary.
Clarkdale 9
Seminary 1
Orr led off game two with a line-drive home run that hit the top of the left-field fence and tipped over.
In the third, Orr belted a ball that banged off the center-field fence scoring Casey Meador for a 2-0 lead. Potate and Satcher each knocked in a run extending the lead to 4-0.
The teams traded runs in the fourth to make it 5-1. Clarkdale then iced the contest with a four-run sixth.
Woodall led off with a double. Meador reached on an error and Orr drew her second intentional walk. Wright made the Seminary strategy backfire by ripping a double down the left field line scoring two to make it 7-1.
Orr came in on a sacrifice fly by Potate and Howard doubled in Wright to up the lead to 9-1.
Clarkdale finished with 14 hits in game two. Howard had three hits including two doubles. Meador had three hits and scored twice. Woodall and Orr each had two hits and two runs. Satcher had two hits while Potate and Wright drove in two apiece.
Seminary had 13 hits but Clarkdale made the plays to keep the visitors off the board. No play may have been bigger than a fifth inning relay from Howard to Potate to catcher Brandi Limerick that got Brittney Lee out at the plate following a double by Gibb.
Gibb had two hits including the fifth inning double to lead Seminary.