Suffolk News-Herald

Shawn Owen picked the perfect time to regain her &uot;homering&uot; touch on Sunday afternoon, knocking two balls out of the Driver Elementary School park (the first of which was a grand slam) as she and the rest of the Mamacitas took the Bennett’s Creek Women’s Softball League tournament title home, defeating the Caution 18-8 (earlier in the day, both teams had beaten the season champion Pill Poppers). The Mamas poked out five homers (four in the first three innings) in the win.

&uot;My teammates gave me some good advice about changing my stance,&uot; Owen said. &uot;I was overwhelmed by all of it. The power was always there, I just had to find it.&uot;

The team found a great deal of power from the start. Tara Worley led off the game by bouncing a double off the left field fence, and Mary Kelly hit the playground equipment behind the centerfield fence with a homer. Ellen Pickens, Jennifer Kay and Jeannette David singled to load the bases, and Owen’s magic showed up, as she homered into left to give her squad a 6-0 lead.

After Anita Bryant doubled home Jennifer Boykin for the Caution in the bottom of the inning, Worley singled in the second and Whitney Dunning smacked a shot over the left field fence for an 8-1 lead. But the team in yellow made their first offensive move in their half of the second.

Rebecca Miller, Shelley Elliott and Tracey Lewis loaded the bases with singles, and Jeannie Brinkley hit a double just over the glove of the leaping Kelly at shortstop, scoring Miller and Elliott. An infield single by Melissa Whited and an error brought in Lewis and Brinkley, and the Caution was within 8-5.

Owen gave her team back the momentum with her second homer in the third, a two-run blast. Pat Munson, Worley and Dunning loaded the bases, and Kathleen Hotte doubled to center to score Munson and Worley. A single to left by Kelly brought home two more runs, and the lead was up to nine.

After the early onslaught, however, the scoring went south for the remainder of the game. Whited scored for the Caution in the fifth and Kay for the Mamas in the sixth, but neither team went on the type of rush that had clogged the first three innings. Kelly, however, cranked her second homer of the game, a three-run shot in the top of the seventh, and Whited helped her team go home happy with a two-run blast in the bottom of the inning.