Lady Lions backed up, baseball team done

Posted: Friday, May 10, 2013 12:00 pm

By RANDY CAVIN
Press Sports
One unfortunate seventh inning for the Dresden softball team put an end to a close game.
The Lady Lions saw their slim one-run lead vanish with a two-run single and the bases loaded with one out as Huntingdon squeaked by the Lady Lions 2-1 in the winners’ bracket of the District 13A tournament on Tuesday.
That one hit that dropped in for a base hit in shallow center field ended a strong pitching performance by Abigail Lockhart and an even stronger defensive effort by the Lady Lions.
The Dresden baseball team saw its season come to an end with an 8-6 defeat to Bruceton on Monday night. The Lions finish with an 8-16 record.
Lions head coach Scott Killebrew said his team just needed a break to go their way and the game might have had a different outcome.
“If we could have made one more play early in the game, I believe we could have won,” Killebrew said.
SOFTBALL
H’don 2, Dresden 1
Lockhart was pitching a gem, with her defense making one great play after the other, and had a no-hitter going into the bottom of the sixth when it was broken up by a line drive to right field that was just out of the reach of Allie Randolph at first base. She got the next batter to line out to Carrie Hatchel at shortstop.
The hits started making their way through the holes in the bottom of the seventh. The Fillies first two batters got the ball through the infield for base hits and then Randolph misplayed a grounder that went for an error to load the bases with no one out.
The fourth batter of the inning hit a hard grounder to Hatchel, who threw the ball to home just in time to make the force-out. Dresden catcher KJ Smith made a great play to scoop the ball up out of the dirt and keep it from getting past her for the out.
The next batter hit a liner over the middle of the infield that dropped in center field that scored the tying and winning runs for the Fillies.
Dresden head coach Stacey Lockhart said after the game that her team had Huntingdon beat, but the Fillies won the inning that counted the most.
“We beat them for the first six innings, but they won the last one,” Lockhart said. “We played better than anyone else has played them. They hit the ball hard the last inning and it found a way to go through.”
She still thought her pitcher did a great job after not pitching since Thursday’s opening round win. Lockhart was especially pleased with the way the defense backed up her pitcher by snaring line drives, making great catches in the outfield and even turning a double play in the fourth inning after the Fillies got their first baserunner of the game on first with two outs.
“They did everything we asked of them and they did a good job,” Lockhart said. “They played their hearts out today.”
The younger Lockhart only got two strikeouts in the game, but she induced 10 ground ball outs. She allowed one earned run on four hits. She retired the first 10 batters she faced before hitting one with a pitch in the fourth inning with one out. The next batter hit a hard grounder to Hatchel who stepped on second and fired the ball to Randolph at first who had to stretch out as far as she could to make the catch for the double play.
BASEBALL
B’ton 8, Dresden 6
The Lions got down early and had to play catch-up with the Tigers but came up short in their effort to prolong the season.
Bruceton scored four runs in the third with the assistance of two Dresden miscues to go up 6-0, But the Lions battled back to tie the game with Nick Coleman’s two-run double in the sixth inning. The Lions had two runners on base later in the inning, but could not bring them around to score.
Bruceton retook the lead when the best hitter came to bat and hit a bloop single to make it 8-6.
Dresden scored two in the third, one in the fourth and three in the sixth.
Kaleb Houston scored twice for the Lions and drove in a run in the fourth. Kourtney Sawyer had a two-run base hit in the third.
Coleman took the loss on the mound. He gave up four hits and struck out six.
The Lions will have all but two players back next season. Logan Thomas and Zac Seat will be set to graduate later this month. Killebrew said he will miss Seat because he has been his starting catcher and has no one to replace him. Thomas will be greatly missed because he played every position in the field except catcher.
Published in The WCP 5.9.13

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