With the bases loaded, Lawrence High freshman Karly Johnson had a feeling she was going to see her favorite pitch: a high ball.

Taylor was correct, and she ripped the pitch into the outfield for a three-run triple to give the LHS softball team an early lead.

“It’s easy for me to keep my hands high and take the ball away,” Johnson said. “So I drove it.”

The rest of Johnson’s teammates followed her lead in a dominating 15-0 home win, by mercy rule, in three innings over Shawnee Mission South on Tuesday evening.

“I thought they did well,” LHS coach Nicole Riley said. “They did exactly what we talked about doing, which was coming out and beating this team pretty well.”

Not only did the Lions (3-3) win, and win convincingly, their base running and hitting both showed promise, which Riley said were two things they struggled with last week.

The Lions’ only base-running error came in the second inning when sophomore Kampbell Kilburn was called for offensive interference. Outside of that, Riley was pleased with the Lions’ work on the base-paths.

After being shut out in a doubleheader against Olathe East last week, Lawrence’s 15 runs on Tuesday marked the second consecutive game it reached double-figure runs.

“We’ve worked really hard on our hitting after suffering some strikeouts last week,” Riley said. “The girls are doing exactly what we are asking them to do.”

Johnson said there was an added emphasis on keeping their heads on the ball, and hitting the back of the ball. She did just that on her triple in the first inning that gave the Lions a 3-0 lead. Junior Morgan Husman singled to bring Johnson home for a 4-0 lead on the next at-bat.

After junior pitcher Zoe Brewer struck out the side, the Lions offense took it to another level in the second inning. But it was patience on top of their hitting that enabled the Lions to get 13 of their 15 batters on base in the inning.

Freshman Sarah Cory, sophomore Chloe Taylor and senior Rhi Emerson took advantage Shawnee Mission South’s struggles to pitch inside the strike zone, and were all walked to load the bases. Kilburn followed by smacking a double down the first base line to give Lawrence 6-0 lead.

“I thought they did a good job of getting their pitch tonight,” Riley said. “She was throwing a lot of balls up (in the strike zone), so they did a good job.”

The Lions took advantage of the Raiders’ miscues to put up eight more runs in the inning, before eventually putting up one more run in the third to end the game with the 15-run mercy rule.

Lawrence will travel to Shawnee Mission Northwest at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

SM South 000 — 0 1 4

Lawrence 4(10)1 — 15 9 1

W — Zoe Brewer. L — Anna Levorson

2B — Chloe Taylor, Kampbell Kilburn, Angelina Harjo, LHS. 3B — Karly Johnson, LHS.

LHS Highlights — Zoe Brewer 3 IP, 6 K, 0 ER; Karly Johnson 2-for-3, 4 RBI; Kampbell Kilburn 1-for-2, 3RBI, BB; Morgan Husman 2-for-3, RBI.