Softball achieves no-hitter
By Sam Waller
Carisa Barrera pitched a no-hitter and Gracie Price singled in the only run in the sixth inning as the Albany Lady Lions pulled out a 1-0 victory over Eula on Tuesday, March 28, in District 8-2A softball action at Webb Park.
The Lady Lions (12-11-1 overall, 5-1 district) visited the Lady Pirates on Tuesday, April 4 in a nondistrict game, losing 4-5. Details will be reported next week. The game was added to the schedule to replace the Friday, March 31 game against Gorman, which was forfeited.
In the latest scheduling change, Albany visits Abilene TLCA at 10:00 a.m. Friday, April 7, with the start time moved up to avoid conflicting with Good Friday observances.
On Tuesday, April 11, Albany will host Baird. Lady Lions coach Jimmy Fuentes said he is debating keeping the planned doubleheader or cutting back to one game because Albany is down to nine players.
In the first game against Eula, Barrera struck out seven and faced just three batters over the minimum in throwing her first varsity no-hitter. The sophomore retired the last 13 batters she faced.
Fuentes said he was pleased to see how the Lady Lions bounced back after losing to Cisco the previous week.
“I didn’t know if we’d let that game beat us again or regroup and play well,” he said. “We struggled at the plate a little bit, but we played a heck of a lot better defense and got a great performance out of our pitcher. I told the girls we’d like to have a balanced game, but at least we took care of one side of the ball and were able to win.”
The only serious trouble Barrera faced was in the third, when an error and a third-strike wild pitch put Eula runners at first and third with two outs. She escaped the jam by getting the next batter to ground into a force play.
“Carisa did a good job of hitting her spots,” Fuentes said. “But after that, we’ve got to make good plays defensively, and for the most part we did. We were two errors away from a perfect game.”
Meanwhile, Albany collected six hits with Price and Robin Lucas both going 2 for 3, but the Lady Lions struggled to advance runners until the sixth.
A leadoff walk to Haily Cox and a Lucas single gave Albany two on with one out in the first, but the runners were left stranded. A one-out single by Jayden Kelly in the second was left on base. Price’s one-out double in the fourth also failed to lead to a run and the game remained scoreless into the sixth.
The Lady Lions finally broke through when Kaisley Bartee and Lucas opened the sixth with back-to-back hits. With one out, Price lined a 1-0 pitch up the middle to drive in the run.
“Sometimes, you have those games where it’s a pitchers duel and a defensive struggle,” Fuentes said. “It’s whichever team can come up at the right time. Fortunately, that was us.”
ALBANY 1, EULA 0
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
EULA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0/0/1
ALBANY 0 0 0 0 0 1 X 1/6/2
atbat runs hits RBI
Cox 2b 2 0 0 0
Bartee 3b 3 1 1 0
Lucas ss 3 0 2 0
Barrera p 3 0 0 0
Price c 3 0 2 1
Abbate 1b 3 0 0 0
Kelly rf 3 0 1 0
Lopez lf 2 0 0 0
Parrott cf 2 0 0 0
Totals 24 1 6 1
2B – Price.
IP H R ER BB SO
Barrera 7 0 0 0 0 7
WP – Barrera.
