The Lady Cardinals turned back the Carthage Tigers 9-3 on Thursday in a Central Ozarks Conference contest.  An opportunistic offense that scored in all but one inning and error free defense was enough to run their record to 9-2 overall and 3-0 in the conference.

Kaitlin Beason, batting leadoff for the game, laced a line drive single to left to start the game.  Megan Heman ran for Beason and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Courtney Jones.  Laney Kneib drove Heman home with the first run with a sinlge to left and the Cardinals had a 1-0 lead after the first inning.

The Tigers briefly grabbed the lead with a two run second inning, but the Cardinals matched that in the bottom of the inning as Jones drove in Mikaela Burgess and Lacy Resa with a bases loaded single back up the middle.

The third inning was started when Chelsea Smith doubled to left center, Lexie Gardner singled and Burgess reached on an error to load the bases.  Another Tiger error on an Asia Bemo fly ball to left allowed the first run to score, but Carthage looked to catch a break when Resa singled up the middle, but the ball hit a Cardinal runner and a run was not allowed to score.  However, Beason pounded a long fly ball off the center field fence to score two more.  

The Lady Cards manufactued a run in the fourth as Alexah Replogle walked to open the inning and advanced to second on a Smith groundout and scampered home on a double by Gardner as the Cardinals widened their lead to 7-2.

Replogle drove in the final runs in the sixth as she singled on a 3-0 pitch to drive in Bemo and Heman.

Lexie Gardner picked up three hits on the day and Beason and Jones each collected two hits and was joined by Replogle driving in two runs each.

Beason picked up the complete game allowing only two runs on eight hits while striking out three.