The Newton County Lady Cougars stumbled into the playoffs, losing two out of three contests last week.
The Lady Cougars suffered a pair of shutout losses, falling 5-0 to Enterprise and 7-0 to Neshoba Central. The Lady Cougars bounced back with an 8-4 win over Northwest Rankin to end the regular season.
Newton County, now 20-7-1, will open the Class 4A playoffs against Poplarville after a first-round bye. Game 1 of the series will be at Poplarville at 6 p.m. while the series moves to Newton County on Thursday at 6 p.m. A possible Game 3 would be at 8 p.m. if needed.
Enterprise 5, County 0
The Lady Cougars managed just four hits in a shutout loss to Enterprise on Monday.
Enterprise scored three in the second and two in the seventh.
Newton County had just four hits as Jada McDougle was 2-for-4 with a triple while Katelyn Gipson had a double and Landree Amis had a single.
Brittany Thomas pitched all seven innings, giving up five runs on eight hits while striking out five.
Neshoba Central 7, County 0
The Lady Cougars had three hits and suffered a second shutout loss on the week against the Lady Rockets.
Neshoba scored one in the second, four in the third and two in the fourth on 10 hits.
Shelby Anderson was 2-for-3 with a double while Lorren Ivey had County’s other hit.
Anderson started on the mound for County and gave up seven runs on 10 hits while striking out four.
Neshoba’s Aspen Wesley gave up three hits and struck out 18.
County 8, Northwest Rankin 4
Newton County scored twice as many runs as Northeast Rankin had double the hits of the Lady Cougars.
Newton County scored four runs in the top of the first while Northwest scored one in the first and three in the second to tie the game at 4-4. County scored two runs in the third and fourth for the final margin.
Newton County had six hits in the contest as Landree Amis was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored. Brittany Thomas had a double, scored two runs and had one RBI while Lorren Ivey had a triple and drove in two runs.
Shelby Anderson pitched five innings and picked up the win as she gave up four runs on 10 hits and struck out two. Thomas pitched the two scoreless innings and gave up just two hits.
