Avery Stutts (17) throws a pitch during Scotland’s home win over Southern Lee on Friday night. Stutts had six strikeouts in the game.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
Madison Dixon (10) hits the ball. Dixon went 2-2 from the plate.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
Addison Johnson catches a pop up.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
The Scots throw the ball around the infield after a strikeout from Stutts.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
LAURINBURG —The Scotland softball team crushed the visiting Southern Lee Cavaliers in a 15-0 final from Scotland High School on Friday night. The Scots improve to 3-1 (2-0 in conference games) on the season with the victory while the Cavaliers fall to 1-4 (0-2 against conference opponents) with the loss. The game was stopped after the top of the third inning due to the score.
After starting pitcher Avery Stutts sent Southern Lee down in order during the top of the first, the Scots wasted no time scoring in the bottom half of the inning. Addison Johnson led off the inning with a single then scored on an RBI single from Addison Lewis, who managed to score on the same play thanks to getting to second on a throw and then to third and home on an error.
Stutts and Madison Dixon would each add a single before Emily Sampson brought in two more runs with a two-RBI single. Sampson would also eventually score on an RBI single from Marissa Smith to make it 5-0 after one inning.
Stutts would strikeout all three Southern Lee batters in the top of the second frame. Scotland then put the hammer down with a 10-run bottom of the second in which they sent 16 batters to the plate.
The inning saw the Scots have five hits, draw four walks, have two batters hit by a pitch and benefit from two Cavaliers errors. Stutts then quickly sent Southern Lee down in order during the top half of the third to complete a perfect game over three innings. Stutts had six strikeouts in the contest.
Head Coach Adam Romaine was thrilled with how Stutts pitched and liked how consistent she stayed even in a lopsided affair. It’s hard to be much more effective than Stutts was on Friday, which Romaine recognized and was excited to see.
“She threw 27 pitches to nine batters which is an average of three pitches per batter,” Romaine said. “Great job for her as always and good composure, she doesn’t change her process.”
Offensively, the Scots had 12 hits in the game while three players (Dixon, Sampson and Kinsey Hamilton) had two. Every Scotland player with an at-bat registered at least one hit. Addison Ratley and Sampson led the team in RBIs with three apiece.
Romaine was happy with the way Scotland hit the ball on Friday. He credited the results to a particular hitting drill the team did in practice as well as good base running and saw it all pay off in the game.
“I applaud the girls they did a good job of staying back on the ball and driving the ball,” Romaine said. “Happy with our baserunning because we had base running miscues earlier this week.”
Scotland will have another conference matchup on the road Tuesday night at Union Pines (1-4, 1-0 in conference games). The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.