Ladies benefit from tough tourney
The Lady Lion softball team won only one out of five games at the Stephenville tournament last week, playing against a tough slate of all larger teams.
Albany traveled to Bangs on Tuesday, bringing back a 16-6 win from only their second non-tournament game of the season. Details were not available at press time but will be reported next week.
The girls will be at home on Friday for a 5:00 p.m. game against Cooper High school’s JV team. They won’t play again until a tournament in Snyder on March 7-9.
Albany lost all three pool games in Stephenville on Friday, returning on Saturday for bracket play where they split games.
“This was a very tough tournament, and we basically ran the gauntlet,” coach Jimmy Fuentes said. “First of all, we were the only 2A school entered, and the other three teams in our pool each ended up playing for the championship in one of the two brackets. Eastland and Krum played each other for the gold bracket championship, and Aubrey won the silver bracket.”
The coach said there were benefits to playing against such competitive teams.
“It doesn’t get any tougher than the teams we played, but regardless, we learned some lessons that will pay off in the long run.”
Albany junior Aubrey Moon was named to the all-tournament team at Stephenville.
Albany faced Krum in the first pool game, losing 11-0. Sara Smith pitched the three innings, allowing 11 runs on eight hits and four errors. She had one strikeout and gave up four walks.
The Lady Lions were edged out 3-1 by Aubrey in the second round. Torie Fuentes, Caitlyn Holson, and Ana Balliew each got a hit for Albany, with Holson driving in one RBI.
Balliew pitched the game but no stats were available.
The local girls fell to Eastland 19-0 in the third pool game. Eastland moved on to win the tournament. The Lady Mavs scored seven runs in the first and 12 in the second.
Caitlyn Holson pitched the game, but stats were not available.
Aubrey Moon got the lone hit for Albany.
Albany beat Cisco 13-1 in the first bracket game on Saturday.
Batters getting two hits each for the Lady Lions were Fuentes, Kam Browning, Moon (including one homerun), Holson, Balliew, and Ansleigh Garcia. Blanton Belcher and Jaleigh Morales each had one hit. Moon had six RBIs, followed by Holson with two, and Browning, Balliew, Belcher, Morales, and Garcia with one each.
Balliew pitched against Cisco, allowing one run on three hits. She threw four strikeouts and gave up two walks.
The Lady Lions were routed 17-0 in the second bracket game during a rematch against Aubrey.
Balliew pitched, allowing 17 runs on 13 hits, four walks, and 11 errors. She struck out two batters.
Moon got the only hit for Albany in the game.
