Lady Lions split wins with Hays, Canyon

The Lady Lions marked their first district loss of the season to the Hays Rebels on Tuesday, March 22, but turned around to hand a close 3-2 defeat to the Canyon Cougars on Friday evening.

The Lady Lions fell behind early in the game against Hays on Tuesday, as Hays crept out to a 5-0 lead until the fifth inning, when Lockhart rallied to tie the score.

At the top of the s

eventh, the Lady Rebs had two hits and one Lion error to put them ahead 7-5.

The Lady Lions tried for another rally in the bottom of the seventh, but came up short.

The team turned it around on Friday night, though bouncing back from the loss to earn a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Canyon Cougars.

The Lady Lions scored first in the fourth inning, when Morgan Rives smoked a double to left field. Rives then used her speed to score off a hit from Chelsea Capello which forced a Cougar error to put the Lady Lions ahead, 1-0.

The Cougars answered back in the fourth, scoring two runs off two hits and pulling ahead 2-1.

The score remained at 2-1 until the seventh, when the Lady Lions drove one more run home. With two outs and no time left in the game, the Lady Lions felt the pressure at the plate to make something happen.

Mackinzee Griebel reached base on an error from the Canyon catcher, and stole second to put the Lady Lions in scoring position.

All Lockhart needed was a base hit to score Griebel and take the lead.

Senior and three-hole hitter Taylor Rives came up to bat, standing with two strikes and two outs. She battled at the plate, fouling off the rise ball, but won her battle, ripping a grounder up the middle to score Griebel and give the Lady Lions a 3- 2 lead.

Lockhart was then challenged with holding down the Cougar defense to walk away with the win.

Starting at the top of their line-up, the Cougars’ first batter reached base on a hit, but was thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice. A fly ball to center resulted in out number two.

With a runner at first and two outs, pitcher T. Rives needed to shut down the powerful clean-up hitter. Getting ahead in the count was priceless, as T. Rives threw the change-up, which baited the swing and a miss for the Cougars, ending the game at 3-2 Lockhart.

Once again freshman, Katrina Mills was pivotal on third base as she knocked down several hard hit balls and fielded several bunts to shut down run production for the Cougars. Catcher Amanda Capello worked well with pitcher T. Rives controlling the tempo of the game and calling pitches. T. Rives had the Cougar hitters off balance as she made them ground out seven times, fly out six times, and struck out four on the night.

The hard-hitting, highly skilled Cougars were only allowed five hits.

Other offensive highlights were Mikaela Flores with a double (RBI) and Jessica Henderson with a triple. The Lady Lions are now 4-1 in district play.

They faced the district favorite Smithson Valley Lady Rangers on Tuesday, March 29, and will travel to Kyle to start the second round of district play against the Lehman Lobos on Friday, April 1.

According to the Texas Girls’ Coaches Association Poll, the Lady Lions started the week ranked 22 nd in the state in Class-4A. The Rangers were logged in at sixth.

(Courtesy of Alisha Homann)