Sandiettes Stay Hot in District Play

Grapeland Bashes Latexo, 13-1

By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter  

GRAPELAND – On a sun-splashed Tuesday afternoon, the Grapeland Sandiettes hosted the Latexo Lady Tigers in a District 21-AA softball matchup.

It was a clash between two teams going in opposite directions as the Sandiettes entered the contest with a 3-0 record in district play while the Lady Tigers came into the game with an 0-2 district mark.

Makayla Gunnels

The trends continued as Grapeland put together an eight-run first inning on Tuesday as they coasted to a 13-1 win over Latexo.

Cadie Belle Currie was in the pitcher’s circle for the Sandiettes to open the game and made quick work of the Lady Tigers in the first frame. Currie struck out the first two batters she faced and then got a 4-3 groundout to end the top half of the inning.

The Sandiettes batted around in their half of the first. Cierra Simon led off with a walk and moved to second on Kierra DeCluette’s bunt. An error and a triple from Cheney Boyd brought Simon and DeCluette across the dish for a 2-0 lead.

Currie was up next and roped a double to the gap in left, driving in Boyd. Christy Shepherd came in to run for Currie and moved to third after Hannah Chipman had been hit by a pitch and Maddie McCombs used her speed to reach first on a bunt.

Cheney Boyd

With the bases loaded, Latexo pitcher Gracie Zalesky gave up a single to KeKe Harris which brought in Shepherd and Chipman to make the score 5-0.

Zalesky would finally record back-to-back outs, but the Sandiettes were not quite finished scoring.

In her second at-bat of the inning, Simon hit a shot that skipped past Latexo shortstop Makayla Gunnels and plated McCombs from third.

DeCluette was up next and singled to right to drive in Harris and Simon. Zalesky managed to strike out Boyd to end the Grapeland at-bat, but after one complete inning, the Sandiettes led 8-0.

After a quiet second inning, the Sandiettes tacked on a run in the bottom of the third to make the score 9-0.

Simon hit a one-out single to left, stole second and scored on DeCluette’s base knock up the middle.

The Lady Tigers finally got on the board in the top of the fourth inning. Bailey Ingle reached first on an error. After she stole second, Gunnels slapped a shot into left to drive in Ingle and make the score

Strike Three

9-1, in favor of Grapeland.

When the Sandiettes came to bat in the bottom of the fourth they put the game away as Chipman, McCombs,   Caiden LeBlanc and Simon all crossed the plate to  make the score 13-1.

Currie worked a 1-2-3 fifth inning to close out the game and move the Sandiettes district record to 4-0 while Latexo fell to 0-3.

Zalesky took the loss for the Lady Tigers in four innings of work. She gave up 13 runs (six earned) on 11 hits to go along with six Ks and three walks.

Currie picked up the win for the Sandiettes as she went five innings and gave up one unearned run on two hits. She also had six strikeouts and no walks.

At the plate, Makayla Gunnels was 1-2 for the Lady Tigers with one RBI.

The Sandiettes were lad at the plate by Kierra DeCluette who was 3-4 with three RBI while Cheney Boyd was 2-4 and also had three RBI.

 

Will Johnson may be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

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