Arabia Mountain pitcher Kayla Phillips (left) won the Red MVP Award while Dunwoody's Megan Pierce captured the Blue MVP Award. The Red defeated the Blue 15-8. (Photo by Mark Brock)

Arabia Mountain pitcher Kayla Phillips (left) won the Red MVP Award while Dunwoody’s Megan Pierce captured the Blue MVP Award. The Red defeated the Blue 15-8. (Photo by Mark Brock)

The DCSD Red Senior All-Stars used big third and fourth inning rallies to knock off the Blue Seniors 15-8 in the 12th Annual DCSD Softball Senior All-Star Classic on Wednesday at Chamblee.

Leading 3-1 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning the Red exploded for 6 runs keyed by a two-run double off the bat of Miller Grove’s Lashayna Lee and a RBI double from Decatur’s Olivia Brozek.  Lakeside’s Taylor Parker drove in a run on a ground out in the inning as the Red extended the lead to 9-1.

Six more runs would come in the fourth inning for the Red Seniors with most of the damage coming with two outs in the inning. A fielding error led to a pair of runs while Arabia Mountain’s Marcella Ferguson hit a two-out single and Towers’ Kayla Brown hit the right-center gap for a bases clearing double to extend the lead to 15-1.

Most of the damage by the Blue Seniors came in the eighth and ninth innings as they closed the gap to the final of 15-8.

Dunwoody’s Megan Pierce led off the eighth with a double down the left field line and scored on Alexandra Towner’s ground out. Tucker’s Kayla Hodgson lined a triple down the right field line to score Chamblee’s Tia Gordon and then scored on a wild pitch to make it a 15-4 game heading into the ninth inning.

McNair’s Karleta Telismat singled in the top of the ninth to push Taylor Jacobs of Lithonia across the plate to start a four-run rally.  Telismat, Stephenson’s Kayla Ambler (single) and Dunwoody’s Robin Talon (reached on error) would take advantage of wild pitches and another Red error to cross the plate to make the final margin of 15-8.

The Blue Seniors first run of the game came following a one-out triple by Pierce with Towner singling to right to score the run for an early 1-0 lead.

Arabia Mountain’s Kayla Phillips pitched the first four innings and after allowing the first inning run shutout the Blue Seniors the next three innings without allowing another hit and striking out seven. Lakeside’s Clare Hunter would pitch the fifth, sixth and seventh innings allowing just one hit and no runs.

The Blue managed to shutout the Red over the final four innings.

Phillips would finish the day 3-5 at the plate and score two runs in the game as she won the Most Valuable Player Award for the Red with the four solid innings of pitching to start the game.

Towers’ Kayla Brown also went 3-5 with three RBI while Miller Grove’s Lashayna Lee went 2-5 with two RBI, Decatur’s Olivia Brozek was 2-3 with a double, triple and RBI, Towers’ Jasmine Johnson was 2-2 and Martin Luther King’s Amanda Bell was 2-4.

Dunwoody’s Megan Pierce won the Blue MVP Award as she went 2-3 with a double, triple and two runs scored in the game. Chamblee’s Alexandra Towner was 1-3 with two RBI for the Blue.

The Red now leads the series with the Blue 3-1 since going to the Red-Blue format in 2014. The North-South format ended in 2013 with both teams tied 4-4 over the first eight games in the Classic.