Having come close to a no-hitter, Camden’s Kennedi Stokes was forced to settle for the pitching victory as the Camden softball team stayed unbeaten through three games with an 8-1 win over visiting Dreher on Friday night.

The victory was also the third in as many Region 4-AAA starts for Lynn Looney’s charges.

Stokes went 4.1 innings before surrendering her first hit of the night. The right-hander finished by allowing five hits with seven strikeouts and a walk in a seven inning complete game effort.

The Lady Bulldogs offense gave Stokes all the run support she would need by scoring a pair in the home half of the first as Whitley Kahler led off with a single before stealing both second and third base. She scored the game’s first run on an overthrow from the catcher on the throw to third base. Alisha Robinson drove in the second run with a ground out to shortstop as the hostesses scored twice on one hit.

The roof started caving in on the Blue Devils an inning later as CHS pushed across four runs to extend its lead to 6-0. The Lady Bulldogs did their damage with five hits with Amanda Lane’s RBI double touching off the rally.

The defensive gem of the evening came in the top of the third as Kahler bounded from her catching position to come up with a foul ball behind the plate. Then, she would fire a strike to second base to double-up the DHS runner and help squash any thoughts of a run.

Camden’s lead grew to 7-0 after a fourth inning in which Kristen Carter’s two-out double drove in Bre Dow, who got aboard on a base hit.

The Lady Bulldogs tacked on their final run in the bottom of the fifth only after second baseman Hanna Baker came up with a diving stab of a grounder to her right to force the final out by stepping on second base. As fate would have it, Baker supplied the big hit in the bottom of the fifth as her two-out double drove in Lane to make it an 8-0 lead.

Dreher averted the shutout with a run in the sixth and would threaten in the seventh with back-to-back two-out singles. The game ended when third baseman Alley Phillips hauled in a line drive to end the threat and the game.

Camden did its offensive damage on 12 hits with Lane going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Kahler had two hits in four at-bats with an RBI while swiping two bases. Baker and Stokes both had two hits in four trips to the plate with Baker driving home a run.

In the first game, the Camden junior varsity won their second straight as Katie Ham’s troops blasted Dreher, 16-1.