LUMBERTON — After a long and difficult week for Aniya Merritt and her family, the Lumberton softball standout returned to the field Saturday. And after seven hard-fought innings against North Brunswick in the Robeson County Slugfest first-round game, it was Merritt who had the Pirates celebrating.

Merritt’s walkoff RBI triple brought home Leea Wilkins from first to give the Pirates a 2-1 win over the Scorpions.

Merritt’s younger brother Jacoby passed away Monday after battling cancer. Saturday, a day after her brother’s funeral, Merritt was 4-for-4 at the plate in her first game back on the field, including her game-winner to the right-center-field gap in the seventh.

“I knew it was the last inning, a close game and it was a good team and good game,” Merritt said. “I had to pull through for my team. Leea (Watkins) got a hit and I just fed off that hit and brought in the winning run for my team.”

Lumberton (11-2) will move on to the semifinals of the tournament where it will face off against St.Pauls on Monday at 7 p.m. North Brunswick (3-9) moves into the consolation round where the Scorpions will face Hoke County at 1 p.m.

“That was like a championship game right there,” Lumberton coach Mackie Register said. “Our bracket is tough and there are a bunch of top teams on our side of the bracket and that shouldn’t have been a first-round game. But I mean we knew that we were coming into a dogfight playing against them.”

The Scorpions managed to end their scoring drought in the top of the fifth inning with a line-drive double from Gracie Christianson to tie the game up at 1-1. Lumberton couldn’t manage to get anything across, and the game entered the sixth inning knotted at 1-1. The Lady Pirates defense stepped up big time in the crucial part of the sixth inning, going three up and three down to keep it 1-1 heading up to bat.

“I told them it’s time for us to stop playing to lose the game and start playing to win the game,” Register said. “My assistant coach Leeann Noble got them in the corner and said something to fire them up so gotta give her some credit.”

“Well, we kept our heads up the whole time,” Merritt said. “We kept our energy high on every good play. We were hyped about it, and we just stayed on our toes the whole time.”

After another quick inning from the Scorpions, the game headed to the seventh tied at 1-1. The Lady Pirates defense stepped up again in this battle of the pitchers and defenses to post a scoreless top of the seventh, before Merritt delivered for the Pirates with the game-winner.

Halona Sampson got the win for the Pirates, going seven innings giving up four hits and one run while striking out 11 batters and walking four. For the Scorpions, Hanna Robinson took the loss going 6 1/3 innings, giving up eight hits and two runs while striking out five and walking two.

“Their pitcher did a great job, kept us balanced and our pitcher kept us in the game and gave us chances as well, but our girls fought and preserved and got those big-time hits,” Register said.

After 2 1/2 scoreless innings in what seemed to be a pitchers’ duel as both teams remained scoreless, the Pirates broke the scoring drought with an RBI double in the bottom of the third from Alyssa Stone to make it 1-0. Both sides managed to find three quick outs for their teams as the Pirates and Scorpions headed into the fifth with Lumberton still leading 1-0.

Lady Rams take care of Red Devils

The Purnell Swett Rams softball team took down the Red Springs Red Devils in the first round of the Robeson County Slugfest Saturday morning at Lumberton, as the Rams scored in every inning en route to a five inning 11-1 win.

“A good game for us to get started, we’re young and still trying to find our legs, but we came out and hit the ball and put it in play,” Purnell Swett coach William Deese said. “Got Braci (Woods) back on the mound and got her some innings and so a good game for us.”

Purnell Swett (5-5) will face East Columbus in the semifinals at 4 p.m. Monday. Red Springs they will face Fairmont at 10 a.m. Monday.

The Rams got the scoring going in the bottom of the first on a single by Tomya Hunt and a sacrifice fly by Chloe Chavis giving them the early 2-0. Lead. After forcing another scoreless inning, the Rams added to their lead in the second with a RBI single by Kiersten Strickland which was then followed by a double by Jayla Graham to make it 4-0.

The Red Devils couldn’t get anything going as the Rams forced another scoreless inning in the third. Nylah Johnson brought in a runner with a sacrifice fly, and Strickland had her second RBI single of the day to make it 6-0 Purnell Swett in the bottom of the third.

The Red Devils managed to end their scoring drought in the top of the fourth when they capitalized on a passed ball, though the Rams still led 6-1. In the bottom of the fourth the Rams put on a scoring clinic bringing five runs across the plate.

“We put the ball into play, made some things happen so we’re going to keep that mentality and swing the bat going. So, we’re going to take that some mentality and be ready for Monday,” Deese said.

Hunt had a double bringing home two runners and Johnson hit a triple into the gap that brought a runner to make it 9-1. Chavis hit a double and Woods capped off the scoring surge with a sacrifice fly to take an 11-1 lead heading into the fifth, when the Rams closed things out for the win.

“We had some good hits,” Red Springs coach Chelsi Oxendine said. “I feel like they didn’t play some level with our competition. They could have played too. Hopefully (we’ll) just come back Monday, play a little bit better than what we did today. Simple errors cost us the game. They have the potential to be better so hopefully they come out Monday and do that.”

Woods got the win for the Rams in the circle, going 4 2/3 innings giving up four hits and one run while striking out eight and walking one. Telinda Pate took the loss for the Red Devils.

“I did pretty good throwing my curve ball and I think I could still work on some of my pitches, but I think I did good today for my first game back (from injury),” Woods said. “I think the defense did pretty good. There’re still some things that we can work on but overall think we did good today.”

St. Pauls ekes past Hoke County

The St. Pauls softball team won a one-run nailbiter over Hoke County in Saturday’s Robeson County Slugfest first-round matchup against Hoke County in a 4-3 decision to send the Bulldogs into the semifinals.

“We made plays when we needed to get out of innings,” St. Pauls coach Phillip Tyler said. “Hoke put pressure on us, but we made plays when we had to make plays and we did enough to win.”

St. Pauls (6-3) will face tournament host Lumberton in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Monday. Hoke County (7-5) takes on North Brunswick in the consolation round at 1 p.m.

St. Pauls took a 3-0 lead after one run in the first inning and two in the second; Hoke County tied the game at 3-3 after single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings. The Bulldogs took a 4-3 lead when Roni Hightower scored on a wild pitch in the fifth.

Yomaris Vasquez has two hits, with a triple and an RBI, and was also the winning pitcher, allowing three earned runs on eight hits with three strikeouts. Aniyah Locklear also had two hits, while Hailey Ray, Hightower and Ke’Mya Baldwin had one hit each; Ray had an RBI.

Alyssa Cascavilla and Chayna Locklear had two hits each to lead the Bucks, while Chica Amador and Kalea Parker each had RBIs. Adriana Miller struck out 11 Bulldogs batters in the loss.

The Bulldogs avenged a 9-4 loss to Hoke County when the teams played Feb. 29.

St. Pauls has never reached the Slugfest championship game; they’ll look to do so Monday against a Lumberton team that has won 10 straight games.

“That’ll be a great test,” Tyler said. “They’ve won in a row. They’re the favorite. That’s why you play the games; we’re going to show up and we’re going to put people out there to play, that’s the main thing. We’ll be out there and they’ll show us where we stand, I’m pretty sure of that.”

East Columbus routs Fairmont

The East Columbus softball team dominated Fairmont with an 11-1 win Saturday in the first round of the Robeson County Slugfest.

East Columbus (8-1) will face Purnell Swett in the semifinals at 4 p.m. Monday. Fairmont (1-7) will meet Red Springs at 10 a.m. in the consolation round.

The Gators scored one run in the first, six in the third, one in the fourth and three in the sixth.

Fairmont scored its lone run in the fifth inning after Alexa Grimsley reached on a walk and Layla Hunt reached on a fielder’s choice; courtesy runner Kersten Hunt advanced on two wild pitches and scored on a throwing error.

Kensley Newberry and Kimberleigh Stevens recorded hits for the Golden Tornadoes.

Sara Coleman was 4-for-4 with a double and five RBIs for the Gators. Skylah Collins had three hits with a double, a triple and two RBIs, Sara Coleman had two hits with a home run and three RBIs, Gracie Coyle had two doubles and Jenna King had two hits.

Coyle got the win for East Columbus, striking out seven; Hunt struck out nine in the loss for Fairmont.