Princeton's Wood tosses four-inning shutout

By Brandon Davis
Published in Sports on April 21, 2016 1:49 PM

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PRINCETON -- Hard hits to center field caused a Princeton celebration.

It made a long four-inning game for Southern Wayne.

The Bulldogs fired 11 hits to the middle of the outfield, which catapulted them to a 15-0 victory over the Saints on Wednesday evening.

"We had a couple of errors that helped them," Saints head coach James Edmundson said. "But they hit the ball really, really well. I think our pitcher (Mackenzie Bryan) did fine, she hit locations, (but) all the way through the lineup, it wasn't just one hitter, it was all of them.

"Every ball they hit was hard."

Junior Beth Braswell hit a line drive to center field and brought in sophomore Megan Bryant for Princeton's first run in the bottom half of the first inning.

Sophomore Brianna Myers knocked the ball to center field and scored three teammates -- freshman Karlyn Woodard, senior Kelsey Peedin and Bryant. The Bulldogs picked up four more runs in the second inning.

The Saints turned up the defense.

Sophomore Emily Ricks hit a pop fly over third base. Junior Iyhana Bess made the catch for the second out of the inning. Bryant delivered the ball over the infield, but SW senior Kelsey Hayes made the catch to end the inning.

PHS pitcher Hailey Wood threw three strikeouts in the top of the third, giving the Saints no chance to capatilize on runs. The Bulldogs scored twice in the bottom of the third, and Wood threw three more strikeouts in the top of the fourth.

The Bulldogs stepped on home plate four more times until Ricks hit the ball toward left field. SW freshman Amber Pfennig held out her glove for the out. However, Princeton scored one more time.

Wood threw 10 strikeouts and allowed one hit.

"That's a college pitcher (Wood) right there," Edmundson said. "We only got one hit today. We hit the ball, but only one base hit. She walked five, six batters, and we couldn't move them. We were kind of flat today."

"They're (Saints) real young," Princeton head coach Terry Braswell said. "I saw progress when we played them the first time. They're going to get there. We got a big one next week at North Duplin (on April 28)."

The Bulldogs (10-1 overall) travel to Hobbton today, while the Saints (5-10) visit J.H. Rose on Friday.