Southeast Lauderdale’s Lauren Pickett slides in for the score as the ball gets away from Meridian’s Kayla Stancil Thursday at Northeast Park.

Southeast Lauderdale scored early, scored late and held off a resilient Meridian squad throughout the game in slow-pitch softball action Thursday night at Northeast Park.

Benefiting from three runs in the first inning and seven through the first four, the Lady Tigers stopped a late surge from the Lady Wildcats, who scored two runs in each of the first two innings and came within one run of tying the contest in the bottom of the sixth, before grabbing four insurance runs in the top of the seventh to win 11-6. 

“The thing that I’m proud of is we found a way to win, through adversity,” Southeast head coach Chris Harper said. “I’m proud of them for doing that.”

The Lady Tigers earned six hits in the top of the first, including a single from Kate Moulds that drove in two of their first three runs. The Lady Wildcats picked up two runs of their own in the bottom half of the first off hits from Naomia Anderson and Jada Scarborough. Two errors caused them to score and cut the Lady Tigers’ early 3-0 lead to 3-2.  

Southeast’s Alexis Wilson scored in the second off a triple from Lauren Pickett, who was then brought home by Taylor Williams on a groundout. Meridian followed with a bases-loaded, two-out single by Anderson that scored two runs and made it 5-4 Southeast.

Southeast scored a run in both the third and fourth inning before being held without one for the next two. Meridian was also held scoreless after the second inning until the bottom of the sixth when, down 7-4 with one out, pinch hitter Cadasha Sillimon loaded the bases with a single. After Casandra Gowdy flew out, Jaliyah Davis hit a pitch into the outfield that was dropped, and two runs scored to reduce the Lady Tigers’ lead to 7-6. 

“Every time we’d go down three or four runs, we’d cut back in. We’d fight and battle back, so I was proud of that,” Meridian head coach Mark Davis said. “The way this team’s built, they don’t quit and give up, but man, we’ve got to clean up defensively. Too many routine plays that we didn’t make.” 

Moulds helped her team pull away again in the top of the final frame, earning her third hit of the night and scoring Emily Williams, who previously batted in Rileigh Marlow, to stretch the Lady Tigers’ lead to five, their largest of the game.

Scarborough lead off the bottom of the seventh with a single for the Lady Wildcats before two flyouts and a groundout ended the contest. 

“I thought we’d come out here and we’d kick some butt, and that’s what we did,” Moulds said. “We’re known to kick some butt.”

Defensive errors plagued both teams during the game. 

“We’ve got to take pride in playing defense and make that a priority for us because if we can just become an average defensive team, we can make some noise this year,” Davis said.

Harper said fielding will be the main focus of practice moving forward. 

“We’ve been preaching defense, and we’re not very good at it right now,” he said. “But we’re going to go to work on it tomorrow.”