LAUREL - Laurel softball used a seven-run second inning to roll to a non-conference victory over visiting Hodgson Saturday afternoon.

The 13-3, six-inning mercy rule shortened-win was the Lady Bulldogs' sixth straight and improved their overall record to 12-5 with Monday's regular season finale at home against Caesar Rodney still to come.

"It's definitely better to be peaking now than at the beginning of the season," said Laurel head coach Jodi Green. "One of our goals is to be playing at home in the first round (of the state tournament)."

The tourney's top eight seeds will host first round games when play begins next week and the Bulldogs, with a win over CR, almost certainly will have enough points to earn the advantage.

Junior Logan Green picked up the win over Hodgson from the circle and struck out eight along the way. She also accounted for the Bulldogs' last two runs that put them at the 10-run mercy rule limit with a two-RBI single in the bottom of the sixth.

Sophomore Alyssa Givens and junior Alexis Hudson each had two-hits for Laurel, which strung together four singles and took advantage of a few Hodgson fielding mistakes to produce the second inning rally.

"It definitely takes some of the pressure off me when we score early," Green said of pitching with a big lead. "We're hitting a lot better now than we did in the first half of the season, but we need to make sure we keep stringing hits together instead of (scattering them) in a bunch of different innings."

More on Laurel's game against Hodgson and the Bulldogs' playoff aspirations will be in the Wednesday, May 23, print edition of the Sussex County Post. For more photos of the game, see our online gallery.