Girls win season opener

By Donnie A. Lucas

After missing out on their regular season opener and a tournament last week due to the weather, the Lady Lion softball team got on the field Monday to earn a 20-0 victory over the Cooper JV in Abilene.

Albany will play in the Stephenville tournament starting today, weather permitting. The girls are scheduled to play Springtown at 3:30 p.m. and Midway JV at 5:00 p.m. at McClesky Field at City Park in Stephenville.

The Lady Lions will play Crowley at 11:00 a.m. Friday at Stephenville High and Krum at 2:00 p.m.

They will return to McClesky Field on Saturday for a 11:00 a.m. game against DeLeon and a 2:00 p.m. bout versus Springtown.

The Lady Lions will play Cooper’s JV in a rematch on Tuesday, March 2. The game is on the schedule to be played in Abilene, but the site may be flipped because Albany traveled to Abilene on Monday to play Cooper on a turf field because of wet conditions locally.

“We were a little rusty after being out for so long because of the bad weather, but not as rusty as I thought we would be,” coach Jimmy Fuentes said about the win over Cooper’s JV this week. “It was good to have the opportunity to get some innings in, especially since we lost the Eastland tournament last week too.”

The coach is counting on playing a number of games the next two weeks at the Stephenville and Clifton tournaments.

“We need to enter district with some games under our belts,” he said. “It’s important to us because we have young new players who have to be evaluated and who need to learn a lot in a very limited amount of time.”

Albany will open district at home on March 9 against Gorman.

The Lady Lions opened the game against Cooper’s JV with six runs in the first, followed by five more in the second. The highlight of the offense came in the fourth inning when Blanton Belcher hit a grand slam home run.

Pitcher Ana Balliew was credited with the win, going two and two-thirds innings, allowing one hit for no runs, and striking out four.

Sara Smith came in as relief for two innings, giving up one hit for no runs and striking out five.

ALBANY LIONS vs Cooper JV

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

ALBANY 6 5 2 6 1 X 20/12/0

Cooper 0 0 0 0 0 X 0/2/2

INDIVIDUAL STATS

T Fuentes 1 for 1, 1 single, 3 runs

A Garcia 1 for 1, 1 single, 1 RBI, 1 run

K Browning 1 for 1, 1 triple, 4 RBIs, 1 run

A Holson 1 for 1, 1 single, 2 runs

A Balliew 1 for 2, 1 single, 1 RBI, 1 run

H Cox 2 for 3,  2 singles, 1 RBI, 3 runs

S Smith 1 for 2, 1 single, 3 RBIs, 3 runs

G Price 1 for 2, 1 single,

I Alvarez 0 for 3, 1 RBI, 1 run

B Belcher 2 for 2, 1 single, 1 HR, 6 RBIs, 3 runs

S Hobbs 1 for 2, 1 single, 1 run