The Lady Raiders softball team started slowly on Tuesday afternoon, but dominated Pine Forest in the bottom of the third inning to secure a 10-0 win in the first round of the North Carolina Class 4A tournament, and improve their season record to 14-10.

The Lady Raiders managed one run in the bottom of the second, the break in the ball game came in the bottom of the third when Maggie McKenzie doubled to right center field to lead off the inning. She was brought home by another double off the bat of Becca Kinsey which got the Raiders offense rolling.

The Lady Raiders didn’t score again until the bottom of the fifth inning when they pushed six runs across the plate routing the Pine Forest team.

Pine Forest had trouble on defense starting in the third inning, giving up two errors during the game.

The Lady Raiders took every advantage they could get against the opposing team, and and scored on both fielding errors. “The third inning was our spark offensively, and then we went on to score six runs in the bottom of the fifth inning,” said interim coach Shelley Wimpey.

The offensive catalyst for the Lady Raiders was Kinsey, who was 3-for-3 with three runs scored, two RBIs and a stolen base.

The Lady Raiders had three stolen bases, and played solid defense, with no errors.

Casey Snead earned the victory for the Lady Raiders, logging five innings, allowing five hits, and striking out six. “Casey pitched a great game for us,” Wimpey said.

The Lady Raiders will face the winner of Tuesday night’s Garner/Ashely game this Thursday at 5 p.m.

Contact sports reporter Travis Anderson at 997-3111, ext. 44 or via email at tanderson@yourdailyjournal.com