Lady Lions improve to 7-1
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lady Lions softball team moved another step closer to the playoffs Tuesday, April 12 with a 7-2 victory over Eula at Webb Park.
The Lady Lions had the weekend off because of the area track meet.
Albany (10-12-1 overall, 7-1 District 8-2A) closed out its home schedule Tuesday, April 19, by beating Gorman 7-0 on senior night at Webb Park. The Lady Lions’ four seniors – Ana Balliew, Kam Browning, Ansleigh Garcia, and Sara Smith – were honored before the game. Details of the game will be reported next week.
The Lady Lions wrap up the regular season at 5:00 p.m. Friday, April 22 at Cisco, looking to avenge their only district loss.
Eula Details
Against Eula, Garcia drove in two runs and Balliew pitched a complete game as Albany completed a season sweep of the Lady Pirates.
“The defense was just outstanding,” coach Jimmy Fuentes said. “It was pretty much an error-free ballgame, with no mental mistakes. It was a really solid performance.”
In the first meeting with Eula on March 25, Albany rallied for three runs in the seventh inning on the way to a 5-4 victory in eight innings. The second meeting also required a comeback, but much earlier and from a smaller deficit.
“We want to do better against everybody the second half of district, and I felt we did that against Eula,” Fuentes said. “Last time, we had to come back and tie it up with our last at bat. This time, we did a lot better job with our pitching.”
Fuentes said the Lady Lions also had a better offensive approach.
“We figured out their lefty pitcher and had a good day at the plate,” he said.
After Eula scored a run in the top of the first, the Lady Lions took the lead for good when Garcia singled in two runs in the bottom half of the inning.
Garcia finished 2 for 3, while Balliew and Smith were both 2 for 4. Gracie Price tripled with Robin Lucas, Haily Cox, and Browning also getting hits. Cox, who scored three runs, had an RBI along with Smith, Price, and Carissa Barrera.
In the circle, Balliew allowed one earned run on eight hits. She struck out three.
The Lady Lions extended the lead with three runs in the third. After Cox scored on a wild pitch, Price tripled in a run and scored on Barrera’s groundout.
Cox and Smith added RBI singles in the fourth to push the lead to 7-1.
ALBANY 7, EULA 2
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
EULA 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2/8/1
ALBANY 2 0 3 2 0 0 x 7/10/1
atbat runs hits RBI
Lucas ss 4 0 1 0
Cox c 3 3 1 1
Balliew p 4 1 2 0
Smith 3b 4 1 2 1
Garcia cf 3 1 2 2
Barrera 2b 3 0 0 1
Browning 1b 2 0 1 0
Abbate rf 0 0 0 0
Lopez rf 3 0 0 0
Price lf 3 1 1 1
Totals 29 7 10 6
3B – Price. HBP – Browning. SB – Cox, Balliew.
IP H R ER BB SO
Balliew 7 8 2 1 0 3
