MONTICELLO — After a pair of cancellations, the 2004 version ofthe Lawrence County Lady Cougar slow-pitch softball made theirlong-awaited season debut against West Lincoln Thursday night.

In a battle of reigning division champions, it was the Division7-1A Lady Bears with a 12-2 pounding over the Division 6-4A LadyCougars in 6 innings.

West Lincoln’s Brittney Phillips authored a no-hitter for 5innings to pick up the win

Lawrence County smashed West Lincoln 11-3 in the JV game.

The Lady Bears (3-1) delivered 15 base hits and committed asingle error in the sixth.

“We needed to cut down on our errors,” said West Lincoln headcoach Andrew Redd.

Redd’s ballclub opened the scoring in the second inning. HeatherHuff and Holli Smith reached on consecutive errors by LawrenceCounty. Two batters later, Kelsey Bass’s single scored Huff for a1-0 Lady Bear lead.

West Lincoln continued their assault with a pair of runs fromLauren Smith and Britnee Smith in the third to extend their lead to3-0.

“You can’t win when you don’t hit the ball,” said Lady Cougarhead coach Tarvey Ward. “They hit it and we did not.”

The Lady Bears exploded for 5 runs in the fifth and 4 in thesixth to take a commanding 12-0 advantage. Alicia Kennedy,Phillips, Huff, Holli Smith and April Kennedy crossed home plate inthe fifth while Britnee Smith, Ashley Palomarez, Alicia Kennedy andHuff scored in the sixth.

Lawrence County (0-1), the defending South State 4A champions,broke up the no-hitter and shutout in the sixth. Kate Davissingled. Pinch hitter Shana Starks singled to score Davis. Pinchhitter Brittany Collins reached on a fielder’s choice, forcingStarks out at second. Ellie Fairburn singled. Pinch hitter LaurenBaker reached on an error that allowed Collins to score.

“We waited too late to get our bats going,” added Ward.

Kaila Givens, who suffered the loss for the Lady Cougars, had asingle in Lawrence County’s 4-hit attack.

For West Lincoln, Kelsey led the way with a double and 2singles. Lauren Smith singled twice. Britnee Smith singled andscored twice. Huff singled and doubled. Holli Smith had 2singles.