By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
The North Pulaski Lady Falcons evened their season record with a 6-0 shutout over Pulaski Robinson at Dupree Park on Thursday.
The Lady Falcons (5-5) dominated the non-conference game with strong defense and a two-hitter from junior pitcher Brittany Bains. Offensively, North Pulaski scattered runs in the first, second and fifth innings and got 14 hits, seven in the first two innings, off Robinson pitcher Katherine Toler.
“I would like to have seen more runs,” North Pulaski coach Ann Tharp said. “That very last inning when we had the bases loaded, I was hoping we could bust that open, but we scored enough to win and played pretty good defense.”
Bains was working on a no-hitter through four innings before the Lady Senators’ Courtney McSpadden led off the top of the fifth with a double.
“She did great,” Tharp said of Bains. “We’re going to need her strong coming up in the next week, because we’ve got a big week next week.”
The Lady Falcons will play at Vilonia on Monday before hosting West Helena in a 5A-Southeast Conference doubleheader Tuesday.
The junior-varsity team will host Little Rock Hall in a doubleheader Wednesday, and the annual Jae Lynn Russell Memorial softball tournament begins Friday. The Lady Falcons will play Friday at 5:30.
Bains set the tone early by striking out the first two Robinson batters.
She walked No. 3 hitter Whitney Jarvis before inducing a popup from cleanup hitter Kayla McSpadden. Bains struck out 10 and walked four.
Junior outfielder Julie Mullen drove in the Lady Falcons’ first two runs when she singled to left center to score Kelsey Seats and Heather Fleshman.
Seats reached when she hit a fielder’s choice to shortstop that forced Alexis Hendricks at second, and Fleshman hit a tricky bloop single that took a curve and ended up directly behind Toler on the back side of the pitcher’s circle. That gave North Pulaski a 2-0 lead after one inning.
The Lady Falcons added to their lead in the second. Designated hitter Anna Langrell singled to shallow right and leadoff batter Casey Mullen hit a fly over shortstop before Hendricks loaded the bases on a walk.
Batting cleanup, Fleshman then drove in Langrell and Mullen with a hit down the first base line that curved right just after clearing the base fair.
Three straight singles led to the final two North Pulaski scores in the bottom of the fifth inning. Seats and Fleshman both singled to left, and another hit to left, this time a two-RBI smash by Kelsey Whitmore, scored both runners.
Langrell singled to left in the bottom of the sixth and advanced to third on singles by Mullen and Hendricks to load the bases with one out, but Langrell was thrown out at the plate when Seats grounded to third.
