The Aledo Ladycats revenge tour has begun. The reigning state finalist has spent the better part of a year waiting for a chance to get back to Austin for the State Championship.
After a 10-0 run through district and riding a 14-game winning streak, the Ladycats (25-2) started their playoff climb as the Denton Ryan Lady Raiders (15-13-2) came to town for a first-round series in the Class 5A University Interscholastic League postseason.
Ryan proved to be no trouble for the Ladycats as they swept the series by scores of 14-3 and 12-1.
The Ladycats are advancing to the second round where they will face Mansfield Legacy (22-6), who defeated Fort Worth South Hills in the first round. Legacy entered the postseason as the second seed out of district 8-5A despite having a share of the district title with Burleson Centennial.
Game 1 will take place at 3 p.m. Friday, May 6 at Aledo. Game 2 will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 7 at Legacy High School with a third game to immediately follow if needed.
Ace pitcher Kayleigh Smith started in the circle for the first game and was on fire from the start, pitching four innings of shutout softball and not allowing a hit until there were two outs in the fifth inning.
The scoring started quickly for Aledo. Macy Graf led off the game with a four-pitch walk and Marissa Powell drove her home with a single to right field. Thanks to some shifty baserunning on the same play, Powell ended up scoring to make it 2-0 in one swing of the bat. Presley Hull closed out the inning by driving home Texas Ray to make it 3-0 after one inning.
The Ladycats batted around in the third inning, scoring six runs topped off with a two-run double by Graf to make it a 9-0 game.
The Ladycats were potentially one run away from ending the game by run-rule in the fifth inning, but a three-run inning from the Raiders prevented Aledo from getting the chance. Hannah Pack and Reagan Davis scored in the bottom of the inning, but the score remained 11-3.
Nathalie Touchet came in to pitch for Kayleigh Smith and shut down the Ryan offense. In the sixth inning, Ana Flores doubled home Hull. After back-to-back walks loaded the bases, Maddy Jarvis hit a walk off single to right field, scoring Flores and Hannah Pack for a 14-3 final score.
“They stayed pretty disciplined,” head coach Heather Myers said after the game. “We didn’t have a lot of stats or scouting on their pitcher or this team at all. We’re normally pretty prepared but I couldn’t do that this week. So they went out and took each at-bat one pitch at a time.”
The following day the Ladycats went up to Denton for the second game and got off to a very fast start. Aledo scored two runs in each of the first, second and fourth innings, while Touchet dominated in the circle.
Ryan got one run back in the fifth inning, making it 6-1. However the Ladycats were on a mission and scored six runs in the top of the sixth, and Touchet polished off the sweep with a shutdown inning.
“Nathalie [Touchet] was firing on all cylinders,” Myers recalled, “She did a great job pitching. She did her job, the defense did their job and we got it done at the plate.”
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here