By By Rocky Higginbotham / special to The Star
Nov. 1, 2002
JACKSON Just last week, Katie Moulds delivered a towering base hit to the wall at West Lauderdale's Richard May Complex in Collinsville to lift the homestanding Lady Knights to a thrilling, bottom-of-the-seventh win over Newton County.
Thursday afternoon here at the V.A. Fields, Moulds delivered again.
With one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, Moulds ripped a line drive to left-center field, giving West Lauderdale a 7-6 win over Kossuth and allowing the Lady Knights and head coach Jerry Boatner to lay claim to the Class 3A state championship.
West, which wound up 29-7 on the year, had already won the first game of the best-of-three set 4-1, meaning the extra-inning win gave the Lady Knights a sweep and their sixth overall title.
West could have removed all doubt in Game 2 earlier, as the Lady Knights took a 3-1 lead into the seventh inning.
But Kossuth, which finished 29-8, scored four times in the top of the seventh. Ashley Jones' two-out, RBI single tied the game 3-3, then Mary Allison Potts delivered a two-run base knock to put the Lady Aggies up 5-3.
West answered with two runs of its own in the bottom of the seventh to avoid a third-and-decisive game, getting hits in the inning from Holly Herrington, Amy Frazier and Ashley Helms.
Then, after Kossuth had taken a 6-5 lead in the top of the ninth, the Lady Knights put together yet another rally. With one out, J.J. Huggins, Frazier and Kristina Gardner put together consecutive singles to tie the game.
After Herrington was intentionally walked to load the bases, Kossuth coach Alan Wood brought in his infield and outfield for a force at the plate. But Moulds gave the Lady Aggies no chance, ripping the game-winning hit into the left-center gap.
Herrington finished 3-for-4 with a double and Kirby Rutledge was 3-for-3 for West. Moulds had a single, double and two RBIs; Gardner, Frazier and Brook Bounds had two hits each; and Huggins had a hit and two runs.
In the first game, West Lauderdale scored two runs apiece in the fourth and sixth innings to win 4-1.
Kossuth took the lead in the bottom of the second when Mary Deaton's solo home run put the Lady Aggies up 1-0.
But West went ahead for good in the fourth, as Frazier's RBI triple plated Huggins who had walked. Gardner followed Frazier's hit with a run-scoring single to make it 2-1.
In the sixth, Courtney Godwin led off with a walk and Frazier had a one-out hit. Gardner's base hit loaded the bases, and a sacrifice fly by Herrington and a Kossuth error produced two West runs.
Gardner was 3-for-3 in the opener, while Frazier was 2-for-3 with her triple and two runs scored.