North Duplin senior catcher Kasey Jones, who has signed with Barton College, gets ready before taking the field against Jones Senior on a breezy, rainy Monday evening in Calypso. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
North Duplin shortstop Reece Outlaw fields a ground ball during warm-up drills before Monday’s non-conference game against Jones Senior. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
North Duplin assistant coach Steve Kylis talks with Ady Spence before she heads to the batter’s circle during early-inning action against Jones Senior on Monday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
North Duplin head coach Jaime Higginbotham, middle, talks with catcher Kasey Jones and pitcher Lilly Fulghum about a couple of Jones Senior batters coming to the plate during their game in Calypso on Monday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
North Duplin pitcher Lilly Fulghum threw a five-hitter and recorded 11 strikeouts against Jones Senior on Monday evening. The Rebels swept the two-game, regular-season series from the Trojans. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Jones Senior catcher Lynn King, right, tags out North Duplin’s Addy Higginbotham during first-inning action Monday evening in Calypso. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
North Duplin’s Iala Overton takes third base as Jones Senior’s Olivia Combs bobbles the ball during the first inning on Monday evening. Overton eventually scored on Reece Outlaw’s sacrifice fly to deep right field. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
CALYPSO — North Duplin needed seven full innings to saddle Jones Senior with a loss on the softball diamond Monday evening.
Reece Outlaw and Lilly Fulghum spearheaded a key, third-inning uprising that lifted the Rebels past the much-improved Trojans, 7-2, in rainy conditions.
The team’s previous meeting was a run-rule decision by ND less than three weeks ago in Trenton.
“We had good pitching, we had some good defense,” said second-year Rebels head coach Jaime Kylis. “Our energy [level] was down for some reason, but they were able to pull through and figure it out. Timely hitting was good today.”
Outlaw knotted the contest at 1-1 with a first-inning sacrifice fly to deep right field that plated Iala Overton. The sophomore drew a lead-off walk and moved into scoring position on Addy Higginbotham’s one-strike base knock.
Fulghum kept the Trojans (6-4 overall) silent with five strikeouts and a comebacker to the mound in the second and third innings combined.
A little more energized, the Rebels seized the lead in the third.
Sophomore M’chelle Jaco (1-for-1) connected on a lead-off single that dropped into shallow right field. She advanced to second on passed ball.
Two outs later, Outlaw faced an 0-2 count in the box. The right-handed junior slapped an outside pitch into the power alley in right-center field. Lilly Fulghum rode a 1-0 pitch over the left-field wall that plated Outlaw.
North Duplin led 4-1.
“We had some people that we know are going to produce,” Kylis said. “But we also had some people that had been struggling lately [to produce]. I think we had some bright spots that would have been otherwise dull areas in the lineup as of late.”
Overton knocked in Kasey Jones in the fourth inning and scored on Higginbotham’s base hit that deflected off the second baseman’s glove and rolled into right field.
Fulghum tallied the final run in the fifth.
The Rebels concluded the night with nine hits.
“Their pitcher was a little off-speed for us, maybe she threw us off a little bit,” Kylis. “We definitely didn’t hit the ball like we normally do. When we don’t get runners on base and that shuts us down. We like to run, but if we don’t get the ‘rabbits’ on that shuts us down.”
Inside the circle, Fulghum (9-1) stuffed her stat sheet with 11 strikeouts, three assists and one putout. She surrendered five hits, induced Jones Senior into seven groundouts and did not walk a batter.
The two-time defending Carolina 1A champion, North Duplin (9-1) travels to league foe Hobbton today. Game time is 6 p.m.
