Lady Lions head to area bout
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lady Lions advanced to the second round of the Class 2A softball playoff by sweeping their bi-district series against Hawley.
On Thursday, April 28, the Lady Lions won the first game 14-6, then completed the sweep Saturday, April 30 with a 7-6 victory. Both games were played at Abilene Cooper.
Albany (12-13-1) will face Ozona in the area round. Game 1 will be played at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, May 6 at Lake View High School in San Angelo. Game 2 is set to start at 4:00 p.m. Monday in Stanton, with a third game to follow if needed.
“Ozona is a district champion, and they haven’t lost many ballgames (coming in at 12-2),” Lady Lion coach Jimmy Fuentes said. “They hit the ball really well, and they’re pretty athletic all the way around. It’s going to be another tough matchup.”
Fuentes said one advantage Albany has is pitching depth. Senior Ana Balliew and freshman Carissa Barrera each started a game against Hawley.
“We’re going to take advantage of having three pitchers,” he said. “We’re going to get Carissa a little bit of experience knowing she’ll probably be our ace next year. She handled it extremely well for being a freshman in her first playoff game.”
In Thursday’s series opener, Albany’s ability to produce two-out rallies led to a pair of five-run innings, the second putting the Lady Lions in front to stay.
“I thought we played really good defense and took advantage of some mistakes Hawley made,” Fuentes said. “I told the girls how important it was for us to have won that first game and put all the pressure on Hawley for Saturday.”
Down 2-0 with two outs in the second, Barrera scored on a wild pitch, Robin Lucas doubled in a run, and Haily Cox singled in two.
After Hawley pulled even in the top of the third, the Lady Lions regained the lead when Gracie Price scored on a passed ball, Ansleigh Garcia singled in a run, and Balliew singled in two to break the game open.
Lucas singled in a run in the fourth, Price scored on an error in the fifth and Albany completed the scoring in the sixth with RBI singles from Sara Smith and Price.
Lucas and Price each went 3 for 5, while Balliew was 2 for 3. The top three spots in the order each drove in two runs.
Balliew went the distance in the circle, allowing six runs on 15 hits. She struck out five.
After a day off for the Region II-2A track meet, Albany completed the sweep by holding off Hawley’s seventh-inning comeback.
“We had the lead, but Hawley came back and handled the pressure the way I expected them to,” Fuentes said. “We responded and got it done at the end.”
Fuentes said Albany’s experience paid off as the game tightened up.
“Our seniors with their experience have learned to pull games out like that,” he said. “They’ve had some high-pressure situations, and they played a pretty good, solid series.”
The Lady Lions built a 6-0 lead on an error and wild pitch in the second, then got RBI doubles from Braylyn Abbate and Lucas in the sixth, followed by Cox’s run-scoring single and an error.
Albany took a 7-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh before Hawley rallied. Balliew, who relieved Barrera to start the sixth, issued two walks and hit two batters before Barrera returned to finish up. The Lady Bearcats scored on a single, double, and sacrifice fly before Barrera got the final out.
Barrera was charged with one run on four hits over 5.2 total innings. Balliew worked 1.1 innings, allowing five runs on two hits.
CLASS 2A BI-DISTRICT
GAME 1
ALBANY 14, HAWLEY 6
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
HAWLEY 1 1 3 0 0 1 0 6/15/2
ALBANY 0 5 5 1 1 2 x 14/13/1
atbat runs hits RBI
Lucas ss 5 2 3 2
Cox c 5 1 1 2
Balliew p 3 1 2 2
Smith 3b 4 0 1 1
Price lf 5 2 3 1
Barrera 2b 3 3 1 0
Browning 1b 3 2 1 0
Abbate rf 1 2 0 0
Garcia cf 3 1 1 1
Totals 33 14 13 9
2B – Lucas.
IP H R ER BB SO
Balliew 7 15 6 6 1 5
GAME 2
ALBANY 7, HAWLEY 6
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
ALBANY 0 2 0 0 0 4 1 7/10/1
HAWLEY 0 0 0 0 0 1 5 6/6/4
atbat runs hits RBI
Lucas ss 3 1 1 1
Cox c 4 1 1 1
Smith 3b 4 0 2 0
Price lf 4 0 1 0
Barrera 2b 3 3 2 0
Browning 1b 3 1 1 0
Abbate rf 4 1 2 1
Totals 32 7 10 3
2B – Lucas, Price, Barrera, Abbate. SF – Garcia. CS – Lucas.
IP H R ER BB SO
Barrera 5.2 4 1 1 1 2
Balliew 1.1 2 5 5 3 1
HBP – Balliew 2.
