Lady Lions dominate Roby, TLCA
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lady Lions softball team endured another weather cancellation last week, but bounced back with two big wins, the latter against Abilene TLCA in the District 8-2A opener.
The Lady Lions (6-1 overall, 1-0 district) played its second district game Tuesday, March 11 against Hawley in their final game of spring break week. Details will be reported next week. Albany resumes its normal schedule Tuesday, March 18 at Haskell.
A game scheduled for Tuesday, March 4 at Roby was cancelled because of extremely high wind. Albany defeated Roby 15-0 on Friday, March 7, then beat TLCA 21-2 on Monday, March 10.
“We just need the consistency of playing,” coach Jimmy Fuentes said. “Our young kids need as many at bats and live situations as they can get. You can only work that stuff to a certain extent in practice. We need them to keep learning every ballgame they play.”
Against Roby at home, scored at least two runs in every inning. Carisa Barrera homered and drove in four runs in addition to pitching a one-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts.
Barrera was 3 for 4 as Albany totaled nine hits. Finlee Brown had four RBIs, Madi Parrott three and J’Cee Keen two, with Gabby Lopez and Kamryn Graham each getting one. Parrott, Lopez and Charlee Hefner each doubled, while Brown, Keen and Graham each got a single.
In the circle, Barrera faced three batters over the minimum, allowing one hit and one walk.
At TLCA, Albany led 8-1 before scoring 13 in the fourth, sending 14 batters to the plate before making an out. Parrott, Brown, Hefner, Barrera, Leah Glick and Tatum Grady each had three RBIs, and Kean had two, while Jayden Kelly had one. Barrera was 3 for 5 with a double and a triple. Hefner doubled twice in going 2 for 2, Lopez was 2 for 2. Parrott had a triple, with Brown, Keen and Grady each getting a hit.
Barrera allowed one earned run on two hits while striking out six.
The trick now is to keep momentum rolling against a deep district.
“We’re probably in the toughest district in the state,” Fuentes said. “We have four really good teams in Anson, Stamford, Haskell and Hawley, and they all tied for first place last year. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
While daunting, Fuentes said, the Lady Lions shouldn’t accept preseason predictions as fact.
“I’m stressing don’t be intimidated and don’t roll over for anybody,” the coach said. “Do the best you can, play respectable ball, and who knows what can happen in the end.”
Against Merkel JV, Parrott and Lopez, who homered, both went 2 for 3 with three RBIs, and Keen was 2 for 2 with two RBIs. Barrera and Kelly also had hits with Trail and Glick each getting one. Barrera again had nine strikeouts.
Against Eastland JV, Albany had just four hits but took advantage of nine walks and four hit batters. Four players had RBIs despite not having a hit.
Keen, who drove in two runs, Barrera, Lopez and Graham each had a hit. Barrera finished with eight strikeouts.
