When Mathews High School plays Middlesex, there is always an added incentive to win. Players from both teams have faced each other numerous times, throughout Little League seasons and now in high school softball.

So it was quite an accomplishment when the Lady Devils’ varsity softball team was able to beat its Middlesex rivals twice in the past week.

Mathews traveled to Middlesex last Wednesday with the district’s second-place ranking on the line, as well as bragging rights for the rest of the season. The game was rescheduled from the previous week’s game that Mathews was winning 10-1 in the third inning but was cancelled due to lightning in the distance. The replayed game proved to be a much closer contest, as both pitchers dominated the tempo. Mathews ended up winning 4-1 in extra innings.

After the teams completed seven scoreless innings, Kaitlin Eriksen drew a lead-off walk in the top of the eighth, followed by Hunter Thomas with a fielder’s choice t...