Lady Panthers humble Northern Guilford

Morehead scored early and often Friday afternoon against Northern Guilford and in the process remained in the Triad 3-A Conference title hunt.
The Lady Panthers scored in every inning, highlighted by a five-run fifth inning as they cruised to a 12-2 victory over the visiting Lady Nighthawks.
Leading 7-2 in less than perfect field conditions due to the recent rain, MHS used three hits and three Northern errors to score the five runs in the fifth to pick up the win.
With the victory, Morehead improved to 8-0-1 overall and 6-0 in conference play. Northern dropped to 4-7 overall.
The Lady Panther offense gave starter Ashlee Lemons a two-run lead after the first inning of play and the junior hurler did the rest.
Lemons pitched a two-hitter and gave up only two walks while striking out eight.
Leading the way offensively was Mandi McCullough, who went 3 for 4 with two runs and two RBIs. She got things started in the first inning with an RBI-triple that scored sister Missy. Mandi came home on a fielder’s choice from Brittany Tucker.
Celina Jeffery led off the second with a triple and later scored on an RBI-grounder from Cortney Luegers. Kristin Scherer made it 4-0 with an RBI-single to left field that scored Amber Lemons.
Northern got on the board in the third as Lindsay Elliott drove in Heather Baker (who tripled earlier in the inning) with an RBI-grounder.
Three hits and one Northern error led to two more Lady Panther runs in the bottom half of the inning.
Mandi McCullough singled and later scored, while Tucker had an RBI-double and scored. Tucker came home off an RBI-single from Ashlee Lemons.
Luegers singled and scored on an infield error in the fourth to make it 7-1.
Baker, who started for the Lady Nighthawks, recorded the team’s only two hits, including an RBI-double to right field that brought home Lauren Soyars in the top of the fifth.
Luegers and the McCullough duo had RBIs in the decisive fifth inning.
Mandi McCullough singled to center field with two outs and an error in the outfield allowed two runs to score to make it 12-2.
Stacey Cochran, Kayla Price, Amber Lemons, Scherer and Missy McCullough all scored runs in the final inning.
Both Luegers and Tucker drove in a pair of runs in the victory, while Ashlee Lemons finished the game going 2 for 3.
MHS will be busy this coming week with three games. The Lady Panthers are scheduled to host Rockingham County (Tuesday) and travel to conference co-leader Bartlett Yancey (Wednesday) and Western Alamance (Friday).
Tuesday’s game with the Lady Cougars will begin at 4:30 p.m.