Big inning Cox’s blast lift Princeton by South Johnston

April 22--PRINCETON -- Princeton reeled off six runs in its last at bat and topped South Johnston 6-1 to cap a set of games that made up the Pikeville Insurance Invitational Wednesday at Princeton. With only three teams available and one of those teams able to play one game, the format was strictly non-conference games between the three teams.

South Johnston led a relatively quiet game offensively through five and a half innings behind Lauren Higgins' RBI double in the fourth, which scored Alexis Massengill.

But then the bottom of the sixth inning rolled around, and the Bulldogs pounced when South made a trio of fielding errors.

With two runners on and one out, Savanna Massengill singled in Tori Paul, tying the game. Logan Pace reached on an error to load the bases for Beth Braswell who drew a walk giving Princeton the lead. After a pop up recorded the second out, Massengill came home on a steal with Charley Cox at bat to run the lead to 3-1.

Cox would soon follow with a three-run home run over the center field fence, pushing the Bulldogs (10-4) ahead by five runs.

South would load the bases in the top of the seventh with one out, but the Bulldogs picked a runner off at third base for the second out and then Paul struck out the next batter to end the game.

Paul struck out 10 on the night with two walks issued and four hits allowed.

Kelsey Peedin and Massengill were both 2-for-3 on the night for Princeton. Peedin doubled. Higgins went 2-for-3 for South in the loss.

South Johnston (10-4) defeated Cleveland 9-3 in the first game of the event. The Trojans jumped out to a 5-0 lead in their first two at bats.

South's Krista Collins reached base five times in the game, once on a double. She was also hit by a pitch and walked three times. Anna Webster doubled for the Trojans.

Dinalee Spell was the winning pitcher, scattering six Ram hits on the evening.

Cleveland cut the lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the second but didn't score again until South led 9-2. Jodi Morgan was 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles for the Rams. Taylor Drayton took the pitching loss.

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