MERIDIAN —     West Lauderdale made quite a late-season run which carried over into the MHSAA Class 4A state slow-pitch softball playoffs.

    But the Knights’ momentum – and postseason magic – came to a screeching halt Tuesday night at the Richard May Complex.

    Two-time defending state champion Newton County jumped all over homestanding West and didn’t let up, sweeping a best-of-three, South State championship series by scores of 17-1 and 9-2.

    The No. 1-ranked Cougars put together eight hits and scored eight times in the top of the first inning of Game 1 and never trailed.

    “I can’t stress how important it was for us to get off to a good start and that’s exactly what we did,” Newton County coach Justin Chaney said. “They had some big wins in the playoffs and we needed to grab that momentum and keep it on our side.”

    Newton County, 31-1, will face Corinth in the Class 4A state championship series Saturday at Freedom Ridge Park in Ridgeland. West Lauderdale finished 18-11.

    The Cougars started Tuesday’s first game with three consecutive hits, then sandwiched five consecutive hits between a pair of West errors to take a commanding 8-0 lead.

    “It really should have been 3-0 or 4-0 there instead of 8-0, but we made those errors,” West Lauderdale coach Cary Luke said. “But that’s what good teams do. We gave them extra outs and they made us pay with hits. They kept on hitting it and we couldn’t throw it or catch it.”

    West combined for more errors (13) than hits (11) during the sweep.

    Newton County, meanwhile, didn’t commit a single error Tuesday and now has just one error in its last four games since a shaky defensive performance in a first-round playoff series against Lawrence County.

    “Once again, our pitching and defense were outstanding,” Chaney said of his squad, which blanked Quitman twice in its second-round series Saturday. “We had girls make diving catches, run down balls in the gaps, didn’t walk anybody ... all the things you could ask for.

    “I can’t say enough about this bunch,” he said. “The stakes were high and they came to play and they executed the things that we practice and preach every day. And they didn’t stop. Once we got the big lead, they kept hitting, kept moving runners.”

    Newton County out-hit West Lauderdale 16-4 in the first game, with Mary Snowden’s 3-for-3, two-RBI game leading the way. Ashton Lampton homered, singled, drove in four and scored three times and Latesia Davis had two hits and three runs.

    Shea Alexander had two hits, two runs and two RBIs; Darby Bishop had two hits and two runs; RoNeisha Brown doubled, scored twice and drove in one; Shelby Barrett had one hit and two RBIs; winning pitcher Meagan Higginbotham had one hit and one RBI; Savannah Gates had one hit and one RBI; and Hannah May singled and scored.

    Mallory Turner doubled for West Lauderdale, which also got a single each from Ashley Adams, Sarah Lolley and Mallory Woolridge.

    West had eight errors in Game 1, which took just 49 minutes to play. In Game 2, Newton County picked up right where it left off – scoring four times in the first inning to take control.

    Lampton led off the bottom of the first with a solo home run for the Cougars, who were the home team on the scoreboard in Game 2. Bishop had a single, West committed another costly error and Barrett delivered an RBI double.

    Lampton finished 3-for-4 with a homer, two doubles and three runs and Barrett was 2-for-3 with two doubles and two RBIs to lead Newton County.

    Bishop had one hit and two runs; Brown singled and drove in two; Davis and Higginbotham both had one hit and one RBI; Alexander scored twice and drove in a run; May and Ashley Gressett each scored; and Higginbotham (29-1) was the winning pitcher.

    Adams had a solo homer and finished with two hits for West, while losing pitcher Randell Walker also collected two hits for the Lady Knights. Turner, Lolley and Breanna Sharp each added a single.