Lunenburg Debs Stay Alive in State with Win Over Buckingham

KENBRIDGE – The Lunenburg Debs All-Star team began their State Tournament last week as the host team and had to wait an extra day for their first game after heavy rains on the opening night.

Lunenburg took on Amelia in their first game of the tournament and got good overall pitching, defense and hitting on the way to an 11-1 win.

They took on a strong Prince Edward-Farmville team in the next game and LGS played great during the contest, including getting a three run homer off the bat of Nikera Lee, but came up just short in a 7-6 final.

This sent Lunenburg down to the bottom half of the bracket to take on Buckingham in an elimination contest.

The two teams both got off to strong offensive starts. Buckingham held a 6-3 lead going to the top of the third inning when Lunenburg rallied to take a 7-6 lead. During the big offensive outburst, Meri Dalton started things off with a hit and Ashley Franklin followed that up with another hit. Josie Epperson hit a shot to left-center to score Dalton and Franklin scored on a Nikera Lee single. Molly Epperson and Samantha Hurdle would both draw walks before Brittany Dolan smacked a double that scored two runs. Sam Matthews also had an RBI fielder’s choice to give Lunenburg the one run lead.

Buckingham would be kept off the board in their half of the inning as Ellie Richmond pitched well while, Molly Epperson and Ashley Franklin had put outs to end the inning.

LGS kept the offense going in the fifth inning as Carrie Bailey singled to start the inning. Kayla Anthony reached base and Dalton hit into a fielder’s choice. Franklin then singled in another run and Lee added her second hit in as many innings to put LGS up 10-6.

The LGS defense would continue to support Richmond with Riley Jones and Anthony playing well in the outfield. LGS added one more run in their next at bat when Dolan singled, and scored on a single by Matthews to give their team an 11-7 lead.

The last inning would be more of the same for Lunenburg as they added to the lead and took a 16-8 win over Buckingham to stay alive in the tournament.

Look for results from the remainder of the tournament next week in The Southside Messenger.