Lady Panthers’ bats propel Alba-Golden to bidistrict win

Posted 5/6/21

Hopscotching around East Texas to avoid the rain did not deter the Alba-Golden Lady Panthers from claiming their first playoff victory of the season. They registered a 13-8 win over the Lady Pirates …

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Lady Panthers’ bats propel Alba-Golden to bidistrict win

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Hopscotching around East Texas to avoid the rain did not deter the Alba-Golden Lady Panthers from claiming their first playoff victory of the season. They registered a 13-8 win over the Lady Pirates of James Bowie High School in a game eventually played on the Lady Pirates’ home diamond. 

Alba-Golden worked hard for this win. Twenty-four Lady Panthers reached base, and 15 base hits drove in 13 runs. It was a full team effort. Although the Lady Pirates also hit the ball well, Alba-Golden smashed six extra base hits while the home side managed just two.

Skyler West threw an effective game. While both pitchers struggled with a very narrow strike zone, West pitched four scoreless innings, gaining strength and accuracy as the game drew on.

The Lady Panthers quickly loaded the bases in the first inning with Abby Hallman drawing a walk and consecutive singles by West and Kayli Covey. With one out, Kalli Wright stepped into the box and drilled the first pitch directly at the third baseman. The drive was so sharply hit that James Bowie was able to double Hallman off of third base, ending Alba-Golden’s chance at a big first inning.

James Bowie went up 2-0 in the second behind a double, a fielding error and a home run. In a seldom seen play, the home run ball only generated two runs, not three, as confusion on the base paths resulted in the batsman overtaking a Lady Pirate baserunner. West then shut down the inning with consecutive strike outs.  

Starting with the top of the order in the third inning, Alba-Golden rallied for four runs. RBI-producing hits by West, Covey and Kylie Kennedy and a sacrifice fly ball by Wright produced the offense. 

The Lady Pirates matched the score in the bottom half with an efficient inning featuring three singles and an infield hit. West notched a key strike out and forced a ground ball out to stop the rally. 

Alba-Golden put together significant scoring rallies in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Kennedy provided the fireworks in the fifth. The strong left-hander pounced on the first pitch and sent a towering home run over the right field wall. In a piece of excellent hitting, West added a fourth run with a single back up the middle, scoring Rylee Wilcoxson. 

In the sixth, Alba-Golden took advantage of a Lady Pirate fielding error to add two runs. 

James Bowie mounted the last rally in the bottom of the sixth. They pushed four runs across on four singles. The final out of the inning came on a play at the plate.  

It was a 10-8 game at the end of six innings and could have gone either way. In the seventh, a West single, a Covey triple off the wall and three fielding errors by James Bowie etched three more runs in Alba-Golden’s scorecard.

James Bowie put two runners on in the bottom half, but West was up to the challenge and generated a strike out and two ground balls to secure the win. 

West was her best asset, going 4 for 5. Covey, Kennedy and Sara Hodges also had multiple hits.

Wilcoxson had Alba-Golden’s defensive play of the night. She made a beautiful catch in right field as she charged in to take a hard-hit liner off her shoe-tops. Of note, Covey was nearly flawless behind the plate.

The win aligned the Lady Panthers to face Martins Mill for the area championship Friday at 5:30 p.m. in Grand Saline.