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<p>The challenging early-season schedule is paying off for Battery Creek’s softball team.</p>
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<p>The Dolphins took the inside track toward another Region 8-3A softball title by sweeping a pair of games from rival May River last week.</p>
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<p>Battery Creek returned to its dominant form with a strong all-around performance in a 6-0 win at May River on Tuesday.</p>
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<p>Alexis Ortiz struck out 14 in a one-hitter, walking one and mowing down the Sharks, and Emily Crosby hit a pair of home runs — including a three-run blast to open the scoring in the third. Journeigh Doray was 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles, and Ortiz and McKenzie Young each added a pair of hits for the Dolphins.</p>
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<p>Crosby’s game-ending RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning lifted the Dolphins to a 3-2 win over visiting May River on Friday.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Crosby singled home Kylee Taff with the winning run for her third RBI of the game. She started the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the first and added an RBI double in the third for a 2-0 lead.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Giovana Rodriguez’s two-run single in the fifth tied the game, and that’s where it stayed until Crosby’s heroics in the eighth.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Ortiz struck out 12 and allowed two runs, five hits, and one walk to outduel Rodriguez, who gave up three runs (two earned) and three hits with two strikeouts and four walks.</p>
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<p>The Dolphins (3-7, 2-0) were scheduled to host Ridgeland-Hardeeville on Tuesday.&nbsp;</p>
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<p></p>
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<p><em>Above: Battery Creek’s Kylee Taff, left, runs toward second base as May River shortstop Kylee Gleason fields the throw. Gleason was unable to turn the double play, and the Dolphins went on to win 3-2. <strong>Photo by Bob Sofaly</strong></em></p>
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