The Alba-Golden Lady Panthers had their play-off run abruptly ended by the Groveton Lady Indians in a regional semi-final sweep last week down in Rusk.
Groveton, ranked number 10 in the state, was a tough draw for the Lady Panthers. The Lady Indians are solid in the field and possessed no obvious weaknesses in their hitting line-up.
Game one went sideways quickly for the Lady Panthers. Fielding errors undid Alba- Golden. Five fielding errors and a couple of mental errors gifted Groveton six runs in game one.
Once a couple of errors had been committed, the cloud of “not making a mistake” descended on the Lady Panthers which made the fielding more tenuous.
Groveton did not need any help. They hit Alba-Golden starter Adie Smith consistently throughout the game, putting many balls in play and going down on strikes only four times. The Lady Indians generated 17 base runners, pushing eight of those across. They took game one, 8-0.
In the top of the first, Lady Panther Averi Stevenson banged a line-drive high off the fence in center field for a double. It was Alba-Golden’s only base hit on the day. Adie Smith also put a ball off the center field fence, but was put-out on the base paths between first and second. The only other well-hit ball was a deep drive by Jayla Sitar which the Lady Indian centerfielder corralled on a nice fading run.
The Lady Panthers went down in order in all but the first inning.
The team rallied defensively in the sixth, putting out three Lady Indians on the basepaths.
Stevenson threw out a Lady Indian at second on a steal attempt. Smith and Stevenson teamed-up to make two put-outs at the plate in two very close plays. It was a small consolation for the Lady Panthers, but it also communicated that they were still playing ball.
An opening series loss to a team like Groveton was simply a bridge too far for Alba- Golden. The Lady Indians dispatched Alba-Golden 8-3 the following night to sweep the series.