There are pitchers, and then there is Morgan Kidd.

Kidd has been mowing down batters all season, but there is perhaps no team she enjoys facing more than county and Region 2-AAAA rival Fayette County.

Kidd’s one-hit, 16-strikeout, complete-game performance helped lead the McIntosh Lady Chiefs to a 13-0 victory Tuesday over Fayette in Fayetteville.

It was the second time this year Kidd had 16 strikeouts against Fayette County. Kidd struck out the first nine batters she faced in the rematch. The 10th batter Kidd faced, Nikki Spruill, singled to right field, the only hit Kidd allowed.

“Morgan did a great job on the mound,” McIntosh coach Joe Gaspierik said. “She’s just a strong pitcher. When she’s on, she’s hard to hit.”

The most important aspect of Kidd’s second victory against Fayette is that it kept the Lady Chiefs in second place in the region with a 7-1 record. McIntosh will enter next week’s region tournament as the No. 2 seed.

Gaspierik is confident that his team will contend for the region championship.

“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t,” Gaspierik said. “There are a lot of good teams in the top bracket, but when we’re on, we can beat anybody.”

Fayette was celebrating Senior Night, but it didn’t take long for McIntosh to ruin the festivities.

In her first game back since separating her shoulder Sept. 20 against Woodward Academy, freshman Linsey Hearn hit a two-out, two-run single to right field in the top of the second inning to put McIntosh in front 2-0.

Hearn’s two-out, run-scoring hit was a sign of things to come for McIntosh, which scored seven of its runs with two outs.

Jessica Conaway’s two-out RBI double in the third, and Erin Justice’s RBI double and Ariel Shaw’s RBI single in back-to-back at-bats with two outs in the fifth increased McIntosh’s lead to 6-0.

Just when things couldn’t get any worse for the Lady Tigers, they imploded in the field in the sixth, allowing seven runs, including four on errors.

Amber Shaw’s two-run single and Hearn’s sacrifice fly accounted for the only runs in the inning that weren’t scored on errors.

Fayette coach Jill Joiner felt inexperience did her team in.

"The first part of the game we played well and stayed with them," Joiner said. "Inexperience finally came through in the end, though."

Fayette's six seniors were honored in a ceremony prior to the game: Britt Hammel-Cobb, Jenee Brooks, Shanna Kirkpatrick, Megan Rigsby, Bianca Terry and Spruill.

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