The Cornersville Lady Bulldogs (8-7) advanced to the second round of the District 11-A tournament by defeating the Santa Fe Lady Wildcats 8-0 in the first round on Thursday night at Richland High School.

Having won all 16 meetings against Santa Fe since the Lady Wildcats joined their District in 2007, Cornersville was on upset alert after the two teams played to a 0-0 tie through the first four innings of play.

The Lady Bulldogs, however, took control of the contest by pushing across seven runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a 7-0 lead before coasting to the lopsided victory.

10-hit game

Bolstered by their fifth inning outburst, Cornersville finished with 10 hits and a walk against Santa Fe starting pitcher Bailey Staggs to go along with two Lady Wildcat errors.

Makayla Campbell led the Lady Bulldogs offensive attack by going 2-for-3 with a double and 2 RBI. Briley Bean tallied two hits, a RBI, and a run scored for CHS as well, while MandiLynn Calahan (2 RBI), Kaitlyn Rogers (1 RBI), Carson Coble (1 RBI), starting pitcher Taylor Wolaver (1 RBI), Miranda Cooksey, and Ashley Beard all had one hit.

"Our team never hung their heads. They never panicked and kept putting the bat on the ball. I expected us to break the game open at some point," said Cornersville coach Eric Crabtree.

Strong performer

Wolaver also turned in a strong performance in the circle and limited Santa Fe to four hits and a walk in seven innings of work while registering six strikeouts en route to earning her seventh win of the season..

Allie Lusk notched two hits to pace Santa Fe at the plate, while Mary Troy and Meg Lusk both had one hit.

Neither team advanced a runner past first base until the bottom of the third inning when the Lady Bulldogs put a woman on second with no outs thanks to a leadoff single by Beard and a passed ball. CHS would end up coming away empty handed, as Staggs retired the next three Cornersville hitters on a pair of groundouts and a fly out to maintain the scoreless tie.

The Lady Wildcats mounted a threat in the top of the fourth and put runners on first and second with two outs thanks to singles from Allie Lusk and Meg Lusk, but Wolaver retired the next Santa Fe batter on a groundout to escape the inning unscathed.

Hits begin

After Staggs worked around a leadoff single by Campbell in the bottom of the fourth, the Lady Bulldogs finally began to string together some hits in the fifth inning and crossed home plate seven times in the frame on the strength of a leadoff single by Briley Bean, two Santa Fe errors, a two-run double by Calahan, a Campbell sacrifice fly, a RBI single by Rogers, a Coble RBI double, a RBI single by Wolaver, and a Bean RBI double to forge a 7-0 lead.

The Lady Wildcats left runners at the corners in the top of the sixth, before Cornersville tacked on another run in the bottom half of the frame to open up an 8-0 advantage when Miranda Cooksey raced home on a two-out RBI double by Campbell after drawing a walk and stealing second.

Wolaver then retired Santa Fe in order in the top of the seventh to record her second shutout of the year.