By Patrick Yost
Editor

The Morgan County Middle School Lady Pups had a comfortable 8-2 lead over Carver Middle School going into the fifth inning last Friday in the team's opener.
Then came the seventh.
The Lady Pups exploded for seven runs in the seventh. Call it timing, call it shaking off first game jitters, call it whatever you want but Head Coach Sarah Titshaw calls it a win. The Lady Pups notched another run in the sixth for a 16-2 win.
Eighth grade pitcher Alicia Ellis recorded four innings in the contest with three strike-outs and no walks. Ellis gave up two runs. Seventh grader Maddie Kinnett, finished the game on the mound and recorded five strike-outs and gave up no runs.
Sarah Couch, an eighth grader who played third base in the contest but, as Titshaw said, can play defensively anywhere on the field, led the Lady Pups at the plate with a 4-5 day including an inside the park homerun. Twin sister Elizabeth Couch, shortstop, was 2-5 at the plate and was hit by a pitch. Elisha Ellis was 3-5 with a double.
Titshaw said the prospects for the Lady Pups are good this year. The team returns 10 eighth graders and added South Carolina transfer Ainslie Dean  to the roster. Dean will catch and may be called upon to pitch, Titshaw said, and will "add a lot of power to the line-up."
"I've got a good group of kids," Titshaw said. "We're going to be good defensively."
And if they can add a few more seven inning runs into the mix, the offense will take the Lady Pups a long way toward a Piedmont Athletic Conference title, too.

Printed in the August 23, 2012 edition