By CHRISSY SMITH
Slidell Sports Editor
The Northshore Lady Panthers ended their season on Friday after losing 16-6 against No. 5 Denham Springs on the road.
The Lady Panthers, which were seeded at 14 in the LHSAA Class 5A state playoffs, finish the season 20-7 overall. Northshore made it to the regional round of the playoff after defeating Airline 10-9 at home earlier last week.
The game started out promising for the Lady Panthers, who scored first in the postseason contest. For Northshore, four of the first five batters reached safely. Senior shortshop Sydney Bourg got the offense starting by hitting a double to lead off the game. Hayley Kirkpatrick knocked her in on a single, and then Angie Guittierrez picked up an RBI by bringing home Kirkpatrick.
Northshore led 2-0 after the top half of the first inning, but Denham Springs would tie things up in the bottom half of the first, and then added three to that to take a 5-2 lead at the end of the inning.
Unfortunately for the local team, Denham Springs would continue to tack on hits and runs, scoring nine over the next two innings, while the Lady Panthers only had one base hit.
As the home team added on the runs, going up 14-2 after four innings, Northshore scored four runs to avoid the 10-run rule after innings. NHS’ Sabrina Buelle had a two-run double in the inning, bringing in Jessica Dicharia and Bourg.
But the Denham Springs team scored twice in the bottom of the sixth, to end the game on the 10-run rule.