In a 14-4 win Tuesday at Middlesboro, the Lady Jackets were swinging for the fences as they racked up three home runs en route to avenging their loss to Harlan County earlier this season.

The Lady Jackets accumulated 12 hits on the afternoon with six singles, one double, one triple and three home runs. Three Lady Jackets put the ball over the fence on Tuesday as Shelby Frazier delivered a three-run home run, Aubrey Sowders connected on a two-run shot and Jamarah Young blasted a solo home run.

“We’ve been taking a lot of extra batting practice lately,” said Middlesboro coach Petie Gilbert. “I like the way we have been working on getting the ball in play with runners in scoring position. I think we’ve been doing a good job of getting ourselves into position with our base running as well. Today, we just hit the ball extremely well.

“It’s nice to finally see things coming together like we know they can. I’ve known we are capable of playing this way all year. It’s nice to finally see it coming together.”

“Hats off to Middlesboro. They hit the ball really well today,” said Harlan County coach Tim McElyea. “When we defeated them earlier in the season at home, I thought we did a good job of limiting them on the sticks. We didn’t do a great job of that today.”

“We’re young on the mound and that plays a factor. It just seemed like they were hitting everything today. We’re just going to get back to work and try to build from this game.”

Although the Lady Jackets began to pull away in the second inning, Harlan County came out strong to open the game.

Nikki Creech connected on a single to lead-off the game for the Lady Bears before being driven home on an RBI single from Hannah Johnson to give the Lady Bears an early 1-0 lead.

Middlesboro wasted no time in answering with a run by way of a Sowders RBI single. Megan Gent added two more runs with a two-RBI single.

The Lady Bears amassed three runs on four hits in the top of the second with RBI singles from Johnson, Creech and Emily Collett to take a 4-3 lead.

Middlesboro came out aggressive in the bottom half of the second, beginning with a single from Linday Buis. Jamarah Young was hit-by-pitch to put two Lady Jackets on base. On the ensuing batter, Frazier connected on a three-run home run for the Lady Jackets, giving them a 6-4 lead.

Two batters later, after a Virginia Marcum single, Sowders connected on a two-run homer, extending the Middlesboro lead to 8-4. Hannah McCullough connected on a triple before Gent gave the Lady Jackets two runners on base, following McCullough with a single. Buis delivered a two-RBI double, extending the Middlesboro lead to 10-4.

After the Buis double, Harlan County brought in Destiny Clark to take over for Creech on the mound, who then retired the side after throwing a runner out at first base.

After retiring three straight batters on ground-outs, the Lady Jackets added another run in the bottom of the third by way of a Sowders RBI single, ballooning their lead to 11-4.

Harlan County only connected on one more hit during the game, a Johnson single in the top of the fifth inning.

The Lady Jackets added four more hits in the bottom of the fifth inning, including a solo home run from Young and a two-RBI double from McCullough to force the run-rule, securing a 10-run victory.

Sowders led the way for the Lady Jacket offense with three hits, two singles and a home run for four RBI. McCullough, Young and Frazier added two hits each, including home runs from Frazier and Young.

Johnson led the Lady Bears a single and double for two RBI.

With the win, Middlesboro moved to 8-9 on the season ahead of their Thursday match-up at Harlan. With the loss, Harlan County fell to 8-4 on the season ahead of its Thursday game at home against Knox Central.

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Middlesboro 371 12 — 14. 12. 3

Harlan County 130 00 — 4. 7. 3.

McCullough and Marcum; Creech, Clark (2), Alred (5) and Adams. WP — McCullough. LP — Creech.