Lady Lions start 2nd half strong
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lady Lions started the second half of the District 8-2A softball schedule with an offensive explosion, defeating Cross Plains on Tuesday, April 5 on the road.
Lady Lions coach Jimmy Fuentes announced that the Friday, April 8 game at May that was initially postponed has been completely cancelled and will not be made up since it will not affect the playoff race. Also, the game scheduled for Thursday, April 14 (today), at Cisco has been rescheduled for Friday, April 22 because of the area track meet.
“It’s good that we’ve got chances to improve in practice before we see Cisco again,” Fuentes said. “The bad part about it is that we won’t be in an actual game situation for a while.”
Albany (9-12-1 overall, 6-1 district) beat Eula 7-2 on Tuesday, April 12, at Webb Park. Details will be reported next week.
The Lady Lions’ next outing will be the senior night game against Gorman on Tuesday, April 19. Fuentes said the team will have a pulled pork meal for fans following the game.
At Cross Plains, the top five spots in the Albany lineup combined for 17 hits, seven for extra bases, and 17 runs. The Lady Lions scored in every inning but the third.
“We got close to 10-running them a couple of times, but like I told the girls, you can expect everybody to be better in the second round,” Fuentes said. “Cross Plains hit the ball well and put some pressure on us defensively, but we played solid.”
Robin Lucas, Haley Cox, and Ana Balliew each went 4 for 6, Sarah Smith was 3 for 5, and Ansleigh Garcia was 2 for 5. Balliew and Carissa Barrera each drove in three runs, while Cox, Smith, Garcia, and Braylyn Abbate each had two RBIs.
“We saw both their pitchers,” Fuentes said. “The first one kind of kept us off balance because she’s not as fast as we’re used to seeing. When they put a faster pitcher in, that’s when we really got going at the plate.”
In the circle, Balliew struck out four over six innings. She allowed six runs, two earned, on five hits and walked none.
Barrera worked the final inning, giving up three runs on three hits with one strikeout.
ALBANY 18, CROSS PLAINS 9
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
ALBANY 4 3 0 2 3 2 4 18/22/4
CROSS PLAINS 2 0 3 0 0 1 3 9/9/5
atbat runs hits RBI
Lucas ss 6 4 4 0
Cox c 6 4 4 2
Balliew 2b 6 4 4 3
Smith 3b 5 3 3 2
Garcia cf 5 2 2 2
Barrera p 4 0 1 3
Browning 1b 4 0 1 0
Lopez 1b 1 0 1 0
Abbate rf 6 0 1 2
Price lf 5 1 1 0
Totals 48 18 22 14
2B – Cox 3, Balliew 2, Smith, Barrera.
3B – Cox. SB – Lucas 5, Garcia 4, Balliew 3, Smith 3, Barrera, Price.
IP H R ER BB SO
Balliew 6 5 6 2 0 4
Barrera 1 4 3 3 0 1
