The Cornersville Lady Bulldogs came up short in an important early season District 11-A clash when they dropped a 3-0 decision to defending conference champ Richland in Lynnville on Thursday night.

Coming off a nine day layoff, the Lady Bulldogs (1-1, 0-1 District) were unable to solve Lady Raider starting pitcher Ashton Edwards and mustered just one hit and four walks against the hard throwing junior while striking out six times leaving eight runners on base overall.

Carson Coble singled and drew a walk to account for Cornersville's lone hit of the contest. MandiLynn Calahan, starting pitcher Wolaver, and Breanne Dunkleman each registered a walk for CHS as well.

Wolaver turned in a solid performance in the circle, but was unable to overcome four Lady Bulldog errors and suffered the loss after allowing three runs, two earned, on five hits and a walk in six innings of work to go along with three strikeouts.

Edwards helped her own cause by belting a solo home run, while leadoff hitter Merrianne Patterson added a double and a run scored. Ashton Henderson, Kasey Currin, and Tabitha Scott also singled for Richland (2-0, 2-0 District) with Henderson driving in a run.

"I'm happy with the way that we hung in there against arguably the best team in our District. We made some errors that hurt us and we left too many runners on base.. We're going to see them again and if anything our confidence grew today," said CHS coach Eric Crabtree. "I thought Taylor pitched well. At the end of the game she left one over the plate and you can't do that against their top five hitters, but overall she threw well."

After Edwards worked around a leadoff single by Coble in the top of the first, the Lady Raiders left two women on base in the bottom of the second before Cornersville stranded runners on the corners in the third inning.

Richland then broke the stalemate in the bottom of the third when Patterson raced home on a two-out RBI bloop single by Henderson after belting a double into the left centerfield gap.

The Lady Bulldogs had a chance to tie the game in the top of the sixth when Makayla Cambell reached base on an error and Ashley Beard was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second with no outs.

Cornersville, however, came away empty handed, as Edwards retired the next three CHS batters on a fielder's choice, a groundout, and a strikeout to escape the inning unscathed.

In the bottom of the sixth, Edwards belted a solo homerun over the left field fence before the Lady Raiders tacked on another run in the inning with the help of two Lady Bulldog errors and a walk by Scott to open up a 3-0 advantage.

Edwards then held CHS scoreless in the top of the seventh to clinch Richland's second win of the season.