COVINGTON, Ga. - Defensive miscues set Newton back Wednesday. They dropped both games of the doubleheader against region foe South Gwinnett 12-9 and 6-3.

Coming into the game in need of a turnaround, Newton sent senior Gerielle Dumervil to the mound for both games with Elle Standard out with an injury.

Dumervil pitched both games for the Lady Rams but the errors were the story as they allowed the Lady Comets to squeak out wins in both games. 

Following the conclusion of the second game, head coach Virginia Tucker-Smith was pleased with the performance of her pitcher.

“For not pitching at all this season, [Gerielle] threw a lot of pitches and kept us in the ballgame,” Tucker-Smith said. “Unfortunately, it came at a bad time with us losing Elle for a couple games and with our starting catcher being down.”

A dropped fly ball allowed the Lady Comets to get ahead early in the first inning, but it was the second inning when they broke it open.

Two runs scored on a pair of RBI. A costly error on the infield allowed two more runners to cross home plate to put the Lady Rams down 6-1 in the early innings.

Facing a 7-1 deficit going into the bottom of the third, the Lady Rams put it together in the next two innings.

After a few hits and a sacrifice fly from Leilani Garcia, Newton trailed by just one run going into the top of the fifth.

In the next two innings, South Gwinnett went on another scoring run to make it a quick 12-6 lead.

The Lady Rams pieced together a trio of runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Garcia had a two-run knock while Aaliyah Wilcox scored the other run on a sacrifice fly. The runs made it a closer game but the Lady Comets closed it out in the seventh to make it a 12-9 win over the Lady Rams in game one.

Game two was a pitching duel. Dumervil pitched two scoreless frames to open the game.

Despite the solid pitching, the Lady Rams could not get any opportunities going offensively which allowed the Lady Comets to take the lead in the top of the third.

South Gwinnett scored four runs in the inning on an error and two hits to make it a 4-0 lead.

After a slow start, Newton answered immediately with a pair of sacrifice bunts to bring two runners across. After a wild pitch scored another Newton run in the fourth, the Lady Rams were only trailing by one run going into the final inning.

However, the Lady Comets got the insurance runs they needed late in the game to pull away.

A triple followed by a fielder’s choice RBI groundout made it a 6-3 lead for South Gwinnett. The Lady Comets finished off the Lady Rams in the bottom of the frame to end the game.

Dumervil pitched every inning for the Lady Rams while also driving in two runners across both games.

With a healthy mix of region and non-region games to go for the Lady Rams, Tucker-Smith is hoping for a quick turnaround for Newton to have a chance to finish the season strong.

“I told them that we know we were in some uncomfortable spots tonight, but this is it. We do not have another option,” Tucker-Smith said. “We either figure it out or come back home tomorrow with another loss.”