Coming off a combined 21 to 1 sweep of the Wesson Lady Cobras, Enterprise hosted Southeast Lauderdale for the south state championship series. Hosting game one of the South State series the Lady Bulldogs played in front of a soldout crowd that never went silent.
The Lady Tigers opened up in the top of the first inning with a quick run scored to take a 1-0 lead. This lead however would not last long as the explosive Lady Bulldog offense went to work scoring six runs in the bottom of the second alone. The Lady Tigers didn’t back down as they sneaked in two more runs to cut the Lady Bulldog led to three. Enterprise struggled on offense as Southeast popped in another two runs to make it a 6-5 ball game. With the crowd behind them, the Lady Bulldog offense woke up and slammed three runs in during the bottom of the fourth. Both the Southeast and Enterprise defenses stood strong, setting up back-to-back scoreless frames for both teams. In the bottom of the sixth the Lady Bulldogs found a hole in the Southeast defense and scored their final run of the game extending their lead to 10-5. Despite a momentous effort by the Lady Tigers and a three-run inning, the late rally was cut short and the Lady Bulldogs took game one with a score of 10-8.
After the game, Enterprise head coach Jeremy Wilkins had this to say on game one “Game one is huge, I think it gives you momentum going into the second game of the series…Now you know you are only one game away and you have two chances at it.”
And that is exactly what the Lady Bulldogs did in game two of the series. Using the momentum from game one, Enterprise traveled to Southeast Lauderdale determined to finish the sweep. The Lady Tigers came to play and took an early 3-1 lead in the second inning. With Southeast Lauderdale out front early, the Lady Bulldogs responded fast, scoring five more runs to take a commanding 6-3 lead. Both teams continued to score and respond with a slug fest of offense. Despite the Lady Tiger offense putting up seven runs, it wasn’t enough as the Bulldogs capped off an 11-7 victory and the sweep.
The Lady Bulldogs jumped in excitement with the last out as they set their date with the state championship series at the University of Southern Miss. Jumping with as much joy as his players, Coach Wilkins looked for minor improvements going into championship week. He stated “We’ve got to pitch a little better and in a high-pressure situation.” Coach Wilkins does have full confidence in his team. “We have a pretty good team chemistry. We pitch pretty well. We play defense pretty well and we hit really well. We don’t have one standout player but across the board we play well together, and I think that’s a really good recipe for winning it all.”
The Lady Bulldogs will play at the University of Southern Mississippi Softball Complex on May 17th against the Booneville Lady Blue Devils at 3:00 p.m., and game 2 will be at 5 p.m. on Friday, May 20. Admission is $15.00. State passes only. Tickets are available at the gate and on GoFan.
Congratulations to the Enterprise Lady Bulldogs. Go Dawgs!
