SENATOBIA – Northwest maintained its third place position in the north division standings on Monday afternoon, getting revenge over Itawamba with a pair of impressive 7-3 and 3-0 wins to hand the Lady Indians their first losses in division play.
Northwest improved to 19-7-1 overall and 10-4 in the north while Itawamba fell to 19-10 and 14-2.
Itawamba came out with a bang in game one to quickly make its presence felt, scoring two runs off starting hurler Casey Baddley and chasing her after just one inning of work. Kami Roberts led off with one of her three doubles in the game and scored off a passed ball, with Courtney Dawson's RBI-single up the middle plating the second run.
Northwest rallied to take its first lead of the game in the third, batting through the lineup and plating four runs off five hits and a pair of Itawamba errors for a 4-2 lead.
Anna Barham's leadoff walk, after falling in the hole 0-2, got the inning going, and the Rangers followed with RBI-hits from Lauren Riley, Natalie Smock, Codie Jones and Baddley. Northwest also took advantage of two outfield errors and some mental mistakes to move runners around.
Jessi Patterson's team-leading 10th home run of the year to leadoff the fifth for Itawamba pulled the gap within 4-3, and the Lady Indians continued to threaten with runners and second and third with no outs.
Stormy Robison then came on in relief of Emily Hatcher after three, solid innings in a pressure situation and got a pair of strikeouts and a fielder's choice to end the threat and maintain the one-run lead.
Riley's solo home run to left in the bottom of the frame gave Northwest a little breathing room at 5-3, with Barham's infield single plating two runs to make the final margin 7-3.
Robison (1-1) then retired six of the final seven Lady Indians she faced to preserve the win. Kristyn Atkins (9-3) was tagged with the loss after giving up eight hits and six runs (all earned). She had given up just seven earned runs in 65 innings of work entering the game.
Hillari Plummer, Vicki Johnson, Riley, Jones and Baddley all had multiple hits in the win.
Baddley (11-1) was back in her impressive form in game two in a 3-0, shutout victory, striking out a career-high nine batters against just two walks while scattering six hits.
After stranding the bases loaded in the first, Northwest was able to take a 1-0 lead in the second thanks to Barham's RBI-double down the left field line that scored Robison.
Pinch-runner Amanda Bies would add a run in the third after scoring on a right field error and Baddley's team-leading ninth hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth would cap the Ranger scoring at 3-0.
Itawamba never really threatened in the game two win, with just three runners touching third base.
Linsey Hebert went 2-for-4 and Smock was 2-for-3 as Northwest out-hit Itawamba 8-6 in game two.
Northwest will return to the diamond on Wednesday, as they'll host Mississippi Delta at 2 p.m.
