HOLLY HILL -- A picture of James Brown -- smiling from ear-to-ear and hugging third baseman Heather Nettles -- hung taped to the fence inside the Holly Hill Academy Lady Raider softball team's dugout Tuesday afternoon.

Brown is the head coach of the Colleton Prep Lady War Hawks (10-8, 2-0), and the picture was taken following his team's SCISAA state championship victory over the Lady Raiders a season ago. Holly Hill and Colleton Prep have split the last two SCISAA 2-A state titles, and along the way the two teams have developed a pretty fierce rivalry.

Wednesday, the two teams resumed that rivalry with a 13-8 Colleton Prep win in a SCISAA region 5-AA slugfest.

"They jumped on us quick, but we didn't give up," said Lady Raiders' head coach Henry Lockey. "We did come back."

Colleton Prep took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Courtney Johnson drove home Hannah Morgan with a triple down the right field line. Colleton Prep then added five more runs in the second inning to jump out to a quick 6-0 lead. Johnson started on the mound for Colleton Prep, and through the first two and two-thirds innings she held Holly Hill hitless while recording five strikeouts.

That quickly changed with two outs in the bottom of the third. Holly Hill's Mary Lockey and Caroline Purvis connected for back-to-back singles to bring Rachel Carpenter to the plate. Carpenter promptly sent a Johnson pitch high in the air to CPA left fielder Leslie Lawson, but the ball bounced out of Lawson's glove and Lockey and Purvis raced home to cut the lead to 6-2. Brittany Dantzler then singled to bring home Carpenter, and Holly Hill had cut the lead to 6-3 heading to the fourth inning.

Holly Hill starting pitcher Katie Carpetner then forced the Lady War Hawks into three straight groundouts to end the top of the fourth, and in the bottom of the inning Holly Hill's Wehme Hutto scored on a passed ball, and Trisha Mauldin scored on a throwing error to cut the lead to 6-5. But, that would be as close as the Lady Raiders would get.

Colleton Prep scored three runs in the top of the fifth, and five runs in the top of the sixth to go on top 13-5. Holly Hill added three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to make the score 13-8. Hutto then led off the bottom of the seventh with a single, but Johnson retired the next three Lady Raiders to end the game.

"I've been coaching here for four years, and the games are always the same with them," said Brown. "It's a good rivalry, and they always give us the best game of anybody. Whether they are down 10, or we are down 10, the runs come. I knew it was going to be a fight, and when we were up 6-0 I told our girls it wasn't over."

Purvis and Carpenter each went 1-for-3 with an RBI for Holly Hill Academy. Also, Hutto was 2-for-4 for the Lady Raiders. Johnson went 3-for-4 with three RBIs for Colleton Prep, and Michelle Gruber was 1-for-4 with two RBIs.

"You have got to bring your 'A' game when you play them," Lockey said. "They are going to hit the ball, and you have just to hit with them. They really didn't hit the ball deep and hard like they normally do, but they hit it where we were not."

Holly Hill (11-4, 1-1) is scheduled to host Florence Christian Friday at 7 p.m.

T&D Sports Writer Brian Linder can be reached by e-mail at blinder@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5553. Discuss this and other stories online at TheT&D.com.

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