Lady Lions record 3-1 start at Clyde

The Albany Lady Lions opened their softball season by going 3-1 last weekend at the Clyde tournament.

“We got some games under our belt, saw game situations and came out of it with a whole list of things we’ve got to cover,” Lady Lion coach Jimmy Fuentes said. “We need to see live pitching and work on live situations.”

Agame scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 20 against Highland was cancelled because of Highland’s continued participation in the girls basketball playoffs.

To make up for that and fill another hole in the schedule, Albany has picked up a home game against Trent at 5:00 p.m.Friday,Feb.23.TheLady Lions will then visit De Leon at 10:00 a.m. Saturday and host Sweetwater at 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27.

At Clyde, Albany started off on Thursday, Feb. 15 by beating Clyde JV 5-1 and Merkel JV 8-4 before falling to Abilene Wylie JV 9-4. On Saturday, Feb. 16, the Lady Lions beat Jim Ned JV 12-1.

“Our older kids hit the ball really well,” Fuentes said.

Carisa Barrera pitched all four games, but the rest of the lineupsawmultipleplayersat different positons as Fuentes tried to fit the pieces together.

“We tried a couple of kids at catcher,” Fuentes said. “Our priority right now is to put somebody behind the plate who can help Carisa out a little bit and knows more about the game.”

Once that is in place, the next step is figuring out the infield, which Fuentes said will take a while.

“It’s a matter of getting kids reps and seeing if they can play a certain spot, he said. “We’ve just got to get better in practice so we can get an idea. We just kind of threw them to the wolves this past weekend.”

Part of the issue, Fuentes said, is the team’s lack of experience.

“We’re going to have to grow up really fast,” hje said. “Right now, there’s one girl who’s played infield consistently throughout her career. I’m having to move outfielders into the infield.”