ST. PAULS — Softball at St. Pauls has been a struggle in recent years.

But this season, the Bulldogs have won five of their first seven games — with four of the five wins by double digits — already matching their win total from all of last season.

The Bulldogs earned win No. 5 Friday with an 11-1, five-inning home victory over Red Springs.

“I think we have better defense, more communication,” junior Mia Vasquez said about the Bulldogs’ turnaround. “We’re working together more.”

St. Pauls (5-2, 2-1 Southeastern Athletic Conference) is playing looser this season, coach Phillip Tyler said, and the result is showing in the Bulldogs’ outcomes.

“The kids are coming to practice and they’re being more relaxed,” Tyler said. “There’s not pressure on them like we’ve had in the past, and it’s probably my take too, putting too much pressure on them. And I told them, you’ve got to relax and then just play ball how you know how to play ball. … They’re a good group of kids, they come to practice, they do the right thing.”

Winning more often, Tyler said, will also help the group continue to get even better as their confidence grows.

“There’s the buy-in process; they start to see what, if we do what we’re supposed to and take care of the things you’re supposed to take care of, then everything else will fall into place,” Tyler said.

The Bulldogs used a four-run second inning and a six-run sixth to win Friday’s game.

The second inning included an RBI fielder’s choice by Ke’Mya Baldwin, a run scored on an error, an RBI groundout by Aniyah Locklear and an RBI single by Hailey Ray.

Leading 4-1 entering the fourth, St. Pauls extended its lead when Baldwin scored on a wild pitch and a Ray RBI groundout plated Kristlyn Chavis. Angel Purcell singled to drive in two more runs, Madison Locklear tripled to score Purcell and a Vasquez single brought home Aniyah Locklear.

“They tried to go away from us to try to see if we could hit it outside,” Tyler said. “We still didn’t hit it like we should have, but I’m content with the effort that gave and coming around and making adjustments to put the ball in play.”

A Roni Hightower RBI single in the fifth inning brought home St. Pauls’ 11th run, ending the game early via the run rule.

In the circle, Vasquez allowed one run on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.

“I was hitting my spots; I thought I did pretty well hitting the corners,” Vasquez said. “I think we played good ball, did what we needed to do. We had less errors than every other game.”

Red Springs (1-4, 0-3 Southeastern) scored its run in the third inning when a Sydney Bell RBI double brought home Emily Brooks.

Telinda Pate took the loss for the Red Devils; 10 of the 11 runs she allowed were unearned.

“We’re still getting used to being a young team,” Red Springs coach Chelsi Oxendine said. “I have four people starting as freshman, one’s starting that’s never played before, and two seniors starting, so it’s a little hard trying to get everybody on the same accord when you have an upperclassman mentality and an underclassman mentality. We’re trying to get everybody on the same page; hopefully we can get it together before it’s too late.”

Purcell and Ray finished with two RBIs each for St. Pauls; Madison Locklear, Baldwin and Aniyah Locklear each scored twice and Ray, Madison Locklear and Vasquez each had two hits.

St. Pauls heads into a one-week break from Southeastern play and will play Monday at Douglas Byrd and Wednesday at home against Whiteville.

Red Springs will play Tuesday at Southeastern foe Midway before a nonconference tilt Wednesday at Seventy-First, with the Red Devils looking to turn around their season after a tough start.

“We have the potential to win some games coming up as long as we can get our minds right, pretty much that’s what it boils down to, getting our minds right and trying to get in the right rhythm,” Oxendine said. “If we can start putting the bat on the ball we should be fine.”