The Pike County Lady Bulldogs knocked off Daleville 20-7 on Tuesday afternoon to improve to 5-6 on the season. With plenty of softball still to be played, the Lady Bulldogs still have their sights on accomplishing their preseason goal of winning an area championship under first year head coach Rebecca Kidd.

The Bulldogs shook out of an offensive slump and got received a strong pitching effort by Jamizyah Berry and Senkeithia Thompson in their comfortable win over the Warhawks.

“We looked good,” Kidd said. “We were able to hit the ball well in the later part of the game. We started to get some base hits. We were able to pitch someone other than Kiki (Thompson) last night. She (Berry) did a good job last night and held them to very few runs.”

Berry started the game and allowed four Warhawk runs, before allowing Thompson to pitch the rest of the way.

The win pulled the Bulldogs to within one game of the .500 mark in a season that has seen its fair share of ups and downs.

“It’s been going well,” Kidd said. “Obviously, any time you have a new program there are some ups and downs. We looked good earlier in the season and then kind of hit a slump there for a little bit in batting. The later part of last night’s game the hitting started to come back to us, we looked pretty good.”

The Bulldogs entered the season with plenty of youth on their roster. They started the year with one seventh grade starter and two starting eighth graders. Since then, Kidd has been forced to do a little more tinkering with her lineup.

“I moved another couple of younger players up,” Kidd said. “In my starting lineup last night, I had three eighth graders and a seventh grader in the starting lineup.”

In last night’s game, it was the younger players that made the difference in the lineup.

“Our eighth grader and our seventh grader have actually been hitting the ball great lately,” Kidd said. “We have had a couple of games with some really tough pitchers. One seventh grader (Amber Kidd) and one eighth grader (Urriya Berry) has really stepped up and really got some base hits when we couldn’t find the ball.”

Thompson has been the go-to arm inside the pitcher’s circle this season, but lately, Kidd has featured new pitchers including Berry.

“Kiki has done a very good job,” Kidd said. “She is showing good leadership this year. Having one experienced pitcher can hurt at times. Berry has been working hard to help with that.”

The Bulldogs find themselves in second place in the area standings. They beat Bullock County, but fell to Pike Historical earlier in the year. They are half way through area play, they will play the two other schools one more time in the regular season.

“I still think we have a chance,” Kidd said. “We definitely have a chance to head into regionals, which would be huge for this team. Still have a chance in the area, it’s just a matter of getting our bats going. If we can get our bats going against Pike Historical, we can definitely compete.”

The Bulldogs will take on Houston Academy at home this afternoon.