MONTICELLO – Ashley Davis has a future in fastpitch softball.The Lawrence County pitcher signed a scholarship Friday with theCopiah-Lincoln Community College Lady Wolves.

Davis, a 5-foot-7 right-hander, was instrumental in LawrenceCounty’s impressive march to the Final Four in the Class 4A stateplayoffs. They were eliminated by East Central, the eventual statechampion, in the South State finals. The Lady Cougars were one ofthe few teams to beat East Central this year.

“I’m looking forward to playing for Co-Lin,” said Davis. “Theyhave a good program.”

A 3-year starter for the Lady Cougars, Davis began pitching as asophomore and made steady improvement. Her fastball has beenconsistently clocked at 58-60 miles per hour.

Davis posted a 20-13-2 record this season. She recorded 153strikeouts in 179 innings and walked 37 batters. She pitched sevenshutouts and four no-hitters.

“Ashley played a key role for us,” said Lawrence Countyfirst-year head coach Veronica Stringfellow. “She stepped up andled the team. She will be hard to replace.”

Davis can throw seven different pitches: Fastball, screwball,changeup, riseball, dropball, curve and off-speed.

Stringfellow called the pitches from the sidelines.

“Ashley puts the ball where I want it,” said Stringfellow. “Shedoes a very good job.”

Co-Lin coach Johnny Williams said he was happy to have Davissign with Co-Lin. He will have three sophomore players fromLawrence Count on the squad next season: Casey Ward, JerricaBoutwell and Danielle Ross.

“Ashley is the first district pitcher we have signed,” saidCoach Williams. “She’s the first one who was good enough to sign.We have always gone out of state to sign pitchers.

“Ashley has a real good work ethic,” Williams added. “There’s nofoolishness about her. She’s an intense pitcher and she loves thegame. She swings the bat real well, too, so she’ll be playinganother position when she’s not pitching.”

Williams said Davis was an excellent student, too. “She has highacademic qualifications.” Davis is a Superintendent’s Scholar atLawrence County and will be an honor graduate. She scored 26 on herACT and plans to be a premed major at Co-Lin.

Williams said he plans to sign several more high school stars.”We will sign four to eight players from the tryouts we hadThursday.”

According to Williams, Co-Lin’s biggest need is middleinfielders. Starting shortstop Janet Chapman and her twin sister,second baseman Jenny Chapman; were 2-year starters for Co-Lin. TheChapmans, from Franklin County, are expected to attend MississippiCollege and play softball.

Co-Lin also lost third baseman Kristi Moak, leftfielder TonyaJohns and infielder Davina Sandifer to graduation. Seven playerswill be returning.

Williams said he plans to have three pitchers on scholarshipnext season. Sophomore hurler Katie Fallin returns. Fallin pitchedevery game this season.

“It will be good to get Fallin some help,” said Williams. “Thiswill enable us to play a lot more non-district games. We can getmore live pitching in practice, too.”