Bi-district battle set against Windthorst
The Lady Lions ended the regular season in fourth place among the 2A division schools in the district, setting up a bi-district game for Thursday against Windthorst.
The first-round playoff is set for Graham High School’s field at 4:00 p.m. Admission is set at $5 for adults and $3 for students.
The Lady Trojans (24-4, 11-1) tied with Archer City as co-champs of District 8-2A, with Windthorst winning the flip to advance as the first place team. Albany (16-11, 0-6) finished fourth out of the four 2A schools in District 7-2A, which also included three 1A teams that advance into a 1A bracket for the playoffs.
The Lady Lions’ Tuesday night game against Eula was rained out and will not be rescheduled since it has no bearing on the playoff pairings.
The Lady Lions advanced to the state tournament last season, losing in the semifinal round to Bells, the eventual state champs. Albany defeated Windthorst in the third round on their way to the state tournament, 9-7, 6-5 in the regional quarter-final series.
The Lady Lions closed out their 2A district schedule with a 9-7 loss in Hawley on Tuesday, April 16 despite leading 7-4 going into the bottom of the seventh. The Lady Bearcats scored five runs in the bottom of the frame to come back for the win.
“Overall, we had a good week and played what I thought was one of our best games of the season against Hawley,” coach Jimmy Fuentes said. “We were not victorious, but we didn’t do things to beat ourselves. We played a solid game.”
Ana Balliew pitched for the Lady Lions, giving up nine runs on 12 hits. She struck out three and gave up no walks.
The Lady Lions also tallied 12 hits on the day and didn’t give up any errors.
LADY LIONS vs hawley
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
ALBANY 0 0 0 0 4 3 0 7/12/0
HAwley 0 1 0 1 0 2 5 9/12/0
INDIVIDUAL STATS
S Smith 2 for 4, 1 sgl, 1 dbl, 1 RBI
A Moon 0 for 3, 1 run
T Fuentes 3 for 4, 2 sgls, 1 dbl, 3 RBIs, 2 runs
C Holson 2 for 4, 1 sgl, 1 dbl, 3 RBIs
A Balliew 1 for 5, 1 sgl, 1 run
K Browning 3 for 4, 3 sgls, 2 runs
I Alvarez 1 for 2, 1 sgl, 1 run
