Southside coach Cassy Story couldn’t have asked for a more perfect home opener.


The Mavericks scored three runs in the bottom of the first, all coming with two out, and junior pitcher Meliah Hunter made that stand by tossing a two-hit shutout as Southside won on both its home opener and its annual Pink Game.

“The weather was great, it was a great home opener for us,” Story said. “We had a lot of people come out and support us and the kids did a great job raising money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, so it was a great way to kick off our home season.”

Southside (5-1), which had won three of four games in a tournament last weekend at Van Alstyne, Texas, needed just the first inning to set the tone properly.

With two out, Madi Conklin doubled and scored on an RBI hit from Hana Dingman. Hunter followed with a single. Then the next two batters, freshmen Reese Robinson and Abbie Turnbull, produced RBI singles to extend the lead to 3-0.

It remained 3-0 until the fifth when Southside added two more runs, including a two-out RBI single off the bat of senior Kendall Willis.

The Mavs scored three more times in the sixth as Conklin had an RBI double, followed by a two-out two-run single from Robinson.

Hunter went on to finish off the shutout as she gave up just two hits and didn’t issue a walk. She struck out nine batters as well.


“Mel did a great job pitching and the kids really came around and did a great job, especially with some two-out hitting. ... They did a really good job and one through nine, a lot of kids came through in the lineup for us and produced, so I’m definitely proud of them,” Story said.

“The best thing about Texas was we were able to really learn a lot and it showed (Tuesday), so the kind of mistakes that we made over the weekend in Texas, the kids were able to fix those things and they did much better (Tuesday). Mel pitched a great game and she’s really worked hard all off-season and it shows; she’s doing really well.”

Five Mavs had two-hit games, with Conklin going 2-for-3 with two doubles, an RBI and a run scored. Dingman, Hunter, Robinson and Hannah Hogue each went 2-for-4.

Southside was scheduled to play Greenwood on Thursday, but it will be a junior varsity game instead as several Lady Bulldog players are still in basketball, as Greenwood is playing its state championship game this weekend.
