Albany girls split district games

The Lady Lion softball team split games against district teams last week, beating a Class 1A opponent while losing to a 2A contender.

The district is mixed this season with a combination of both 1A and 2A schools, but teams in each classification will go separate ways when it comes to the playoffs.

Albany traveled to Haskell on Tuesday, suffering a second loss to the Maidens 18-0. Details of the bout will be reported next week.

The Lady Lions will travel to Hawley on Friday for a 5:00 p.m. game, returning home on Tuesday, April 2 to host the Eula Lady Pirates with a 5:00 p.m. start.

“Baird and Stamford were two vastly different games for us last week,” coach Jimmy Fuentes said. “Baird is basically starting from scratch again, trying to get a group of young kids without much playing experience where they need to be.”

The coach said it was a much different story for Stamford.

“Stamford has come a long way in a short period,” he said. “They have a very talented freshman pitcher who is averaging in the double digits on strikeouts, along with a group of younger girls that can play well. We are going to have to keep making ourselves better to stay competitive with them.”

The Lady Lions led against Stamford until the sixth inning when the Lady Bulldogs scored three runs to take the lead thanks to a fielding error. Another error in the seventh helped Stamford add three more runs for the win.

“We had our chances against them, but in the end our youth showed up, and we made too many errors,” Fuentes said. “Both teams played respectable games for five innings, but it was us who didn’t finish strong enough.”

Ana Balliew pitched for Albany, allowing seven runs on 10 hits and three errors. She didn’t give up a walk and struck out three batters.

LAdy LIONS vs Stamford

SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E

ALBANY 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 3/5/2

Stamford 0 1 0 0 0 3 3 7/10/0

INDIVIDUAL STATS

S Smith 1 for 3, 1 sgl, 1 run

A Moon 1 for 3, 1 sgl, 1 run

C Holson 1 for 3, 1 dbl, 2 RBIs

K Browning 1 for 3, 1 dbl, 1 run

J Morales 1 for 3, 1 sgl, 1 RBI

The Lady Lions scored 23 runs, mainly on walks, in the second inning at Baird last week, to earn the 23-1 win.

Ana Balliew pitched both innings, with one run on four hits and two walks. She had one strikeout.

LADY LIONS vs BAIRD

SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 R/H/E

ALBANY 0 23 x x 23/7/0

Baird 1 0 x x 1/4/3

INDIVIDUAL STATS

A Moon 0 for 2, 3 RBIs, 2 runs

T Fuentes 2 for 3, 2 sgls, 3 RBIs, 3 runs

C Holson 2 for 3, 2 sgls, 3 RBIs, 2 runs

A Balliew 1 for 1, 1 sgl, 1 RBI, 3 runs

K Browning 0 for 0, 1 RBI, 2 runs

B Belcher 2 for 2, 1 sgl, 1 dbl, 3 RBIs, 3 runs

S Hobbs 0 for 0, 2 RBIs, 2 runs

J Morales 0 for 0, 1 RBI, 3 runs