MERIDIAN &045; All season long, the Natchez High softball team struggled with hitting &045; one sterling performance would be followed by a dismal one.

Unfortunately, Tuesday night was more dismal than sterling, as the Lady Bulldogs fell in two games to Meridian in the first round of the playoffs.

Natchez lost 23-1 in the first game and 6-3 in the second, knocking the Lady Bulldogs out of the playoffs.

&uot;Our downfall was hitting, as usual,&uot; Natchez head coach Charlie Williams said.

Natchez was out of the game early in the opener, falling behind 10-0 in the first inning. The Lady Wildcats continued pouring on the runs, scoring at least one run in every inning.

The Bulldogs didn’t score until the game was well out of hand in the sixth inning. Bianca Robinson scored the Lady Bulldogs’ only run, preventing the team from being shut out.

&uot;They just slaughtered us in the first game,&uot; Williams said. &uot;But we should have won the second game. We had our chances, put some ducks on the pond, but we just couldn’t get them home.&uot;

The Lady Bulldogs did indeed have their chances in the second game.

In the end, Natchez simply couldn’t score enough runs.

Meridian again jumped out, scoring four unanswered runs in the first three innings.

Natchez fought back in the fourth inning when Vearlene Thompson drove in two runs with a triple and then Tracy Davis singled to score Thompson.

Those three runs put

the Lady Bulldogs back into the game, down just one run with two innings to play.

But from there, Natchez again dropped into futility, unable to score another run and eventually falling 6-3.

Porshe Singleton was a bright spot for Natchez, gathering four hits in the two games.