The Selma Lady Saints broke the game open for a 14-3 win over the rival Southside Lady Panthers on Friday at the Dallas County Sportsplex.

Mark Fedor, head softball coach of Selma High School (4-6), said the Lady Saints were motivated to beat their rival, and benefitted from a lot of hits.

“The big thing today was they came out ready to play. We played Southside, which is an in-county school, so that gave them a little more incentive,” Fedor said. “They get up for Southside, they get up for Dallas County. Our girls just came prepared and we didn’t make as many mistakes. They played hard, encouraged each other, and that was the main thing. And we got hits.”

The Lady Saints started to pull away and extended their 4-2 lead when Jaquetta Dailey scored from third on a fielder’s choice and Charmekia Moore scored on a passed ball to make it a 6-2 game in the bottom of the second.

Selma continued to pour on the runs, as Takeesha Wilson and Breonda Hall each scored on back-to-back inside-the-park home runs that made it 8-2 in the bottom of the third.

Southside errors resulted in two more Selma runs in the bottom of the third, and Shaquira Livingston hit a shot to right-center field that allowed her to triple and drive in teammate Ayana Moore to make the score 11-2.

Selma’s final runs came in the bottom of the fourth, as Alayshia Manuel scored on a hit to left-center field by Hall, and Dailey and Hall both scored on passed balls.

Southside added one more run in the top of the fifth, as Jabreena Lawrence scored on a passed ball.

Southside pitcher Chelsea Arnold had five strikeouts, while Selma pitcher T’keyah Harris had three.

Kendrick Fails, assistant softball coach of Southside (2-10), said mistakes hurt the Lady Panthers.

“It was pretty much a lack of focus. We’re not focusing at all. Other than that, I feel like we have to come out and work hard,” Fails said. “It’s not much Selma did that was pretty much special, we pretty much took ourselves out the game. Errors, routine outs — we did not make plays when we needed to make plays.”

Southside will play again Tuesday at Craig Field against Carver-Montgomery at 4 p.m.

Selma will play again Monday at home against Autaugaville starting at 4 p.m.