Albany to host Santo Friday
By Sam Waller
The Lady Lions softball team closed out its tournament schedule last week by going 2-3 Thursday-Saturday, March 2-4 at the Clifton tournament.
Albany (8-9-1) was supposed to open District 10-2A play Tuesday against Gorman, but the Panthers forfeited because they didn’t have enough players.
Lady Lions coach Jimmy Fuentes announced a handful of schedule changes that will allow the team to take off most of next week for spring break.
First, Albany will host Santo at 5:00 p.m. Friday, March 10 in a nondistrict game that will fill an open date in the schedule.
The district game against Abilene TLCA scheduled for Tuesday, March 13 will now be played Monday, March 13 with the start time to be determined.
“We’re going to try to get it in as early as we can,” Fuentes said. “All the coaches in the district agreed to move their games, and the good thing is that everybody has the same spring break.”
Also, the game scheduled for Friday, March 17 at Baird will now be part of a doubleheader at Webb Park on Tuesday, April 11.
At Clifton, Albany lost 10-5 to Comanche on Thursday before weather wiped out its second game of the day.
With a revamped format and schedule, the Lady Lions beat Clifton 9-1 and Moody 5-4 on Friday, then lost 5-3 to Hico and 15-5 to Class 6A Belton on Saturday.
“I was pleased overall,” Fuentes said. “We finished pretty strong, with more competitiveness.”
Fuentes said the main goal for the weekend was to finalize the lineup before district.
“We’ve had to look at kids at several different spots,” he said. “Kids without any experience in the infield are playing infield.”
The tournament gave Fuentes a chance to get one more look at different lineup combinations.
“With so few kids, we’ve got to be able to adjust,” he said. “We’ve had to do that over this whole tournament season. I think that’s the best thing we got to do.”
Against Comanche, Robin Lucas was 3 for 3 with two RBIs, while Carisa Barrera was 2 for 3. Haily Cox and Kaisley Bartee each had a hit and an RBI.
Barrera pitched 3.2 innings, giving up two earned runs on 10 hits with two walks and two strikeouts. Three Albany errors led to seven unearned runs in the first inning.
Against Clifton, Albany scored six runs in the fourth to break the game open. Lucas was 2 for 3 with an RBI and Gracie Price was 2 for 2 with an RBI. Braylyn Abbate was 1 for 3 with two RBIs. Cox, Bartee (double), and Jayden Kelly each had a hit and an RBI. Alli McDaniel also drove in a run.
Barrera allowed one earned run on four hits in four innings. She had one walk and one strikeout.
Against Moody, Price scored the winning run in the third on a passed ball. Cox (double) and Bartee had Albany’s only RBIs. Cox, Bartee, Lucas (double), Barrera, Price, and Abbate had one hit each.
Lucas pitched two innings, giving up two earned runs on one hit with seven walks. Barrera faced one batter before time ran out.
Against Hico, Barrera and Price had RBIs. Cox was 2 for 3 and Lucas 2 for 2 with a double. Bartee (triple), Barrera, Abbate, and Gabby Lopez had one hit each.
Barrera struck out six over five innings. She allowed three earned runs on six hits with two walks.
Against Belton, Cox tripled with two RBIs, while Bartee had a double and an RBI. Barrera had a hit and an RBI, Price drove in a run, and Lopez had a hit.
Barrera gave up 12 earned runs on 14 hits with six walks.
