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Extra frames decide games

By JARRETT GUTHRIE
Published July 31, 2006

GULFPORT - The first two games of Sunday's action in the Little League Softball Southern Regional Tournament from Arnold S. White Sr. Stadium both went into extra innings.

In the first game, Morristown, Tenn., defeated St. Albans, W.Va., 6-2 in seven innings. Tennessee's Mallory Black struck out 13 and allowed one earned run. Kinslee Jordan pitched six strong innings with five strikeouts, but allowed five in the seventh. Both had complete games. Tennessee's Sarah Collins had two doubles, including a two-run hit in the deciding seventh inning. She also scored in the fourth.

The second game lasted more than three hours and, despite a score of 9-7 at the end of the second, turned into a nine-inning, relief pitchers' duel between Phenix City, Ala., Rebecka Burditt and Simpsonville, S.C.'s Carley Hoover took the mound in the second and pitched into extra innings with Burditt earning the 11-10 win. Burditt struck out six while Hoover struck out 12 but walked in the winning run. Alabama's Brittany Welliver scored two runs and South Carolina's Sylver Samuel was 5-for-6 with two RBI and a run scored.

McLean, Va., defeated Wilkes County, N.C., 15-1 in four innings. Virginia's Amanda Moll was 3-for-4, with a triple. Moll scored three runs and had an RBI. In the top of the fourth, McLean had a run scored by all nine spots in the lineup.

Cape Coral beat Harris County, Ga., 7-0. Florida, Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina advance to the semifinals. Those games begin at 5 p.m. today

GAME BALLS: Simpsonville catcher Alyssa Davis caught all nine innings in the hot sun and had three put outs at the plate and threw out a base runner at second in the seventh inning . . . The volunteer umpiresr kept all the players and themselves hydrated throughout the games . . . McLean, Va. first base/catcher Allison Wilhelm had three RBI on three singles Sunday and hit a grand slam in Saturday's win against Alabama..

[Last modified July 31, 2006, 02:21:20]