First Posted: 5/4/2010

ST. PAULS The St. Pauls softball team was looking to keep the battle for the Three Rivers Conference championship a two-horse race, while South Robeson was looking to crash the party.
The Mustangs took advantage of seven base on balls by St. Pauls pitcher Cassie Inman to knock off the Bulldogs 8-5 on Monday afternoon.
South Robeson improves to 6-2 in Three Rivers Conference play with the win, while St. Pauls falls back to 6-2 and out of a first place tie with East Columbus (7-1).
St. Pauls closes out its regular season with a contest today at West Columbus and Thursday at home against Fairmont. South Robeson travels to Red Springs today, before wrapping up its schedule Wednesday at home vs. East Columbus.
“I told the team last week, there’s three games left and if we want to finish at least tied for first, we would have to win them all,” South Robeson coach Donnie Carter said. “We lost our senior catcher (Kalneisha Drawhorn) last week. My biggest question was how would we play tonight because there were some people playing out of position.”
Carter was able to relax through the first five innings as South Robeson starter Constance Carter limited the Bulldogs (8-10) to just two hits as the Mustangs built a 6-0 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth, St. Pauls mounted a comeback. After a strikeout Carter walked the next two batters. Ebony Hogan followed with a run-scoring single to score Rebecca Mintac. Andrea Bound added an RBI-single to plate Andrea Tyler. Inman grounded into a fielder’s choice, forcing Hogan at third. Kandace Brown smacked a single to score Bound, on the play Inman raced home on a throwing error and Brown moved to third. With Joanna Noah up, Brown attempted to score on a wild pitch, but was tagged out at home ending the inning.
“We didn’t start hitting until the sixth inning,” St. Pauls coach Jennifer Martinez said. “You can’t win ball games when you wait until the last two innings to hit the ball.”