Sandiettes Rally in Seven to Pick Up Win
Grapeland Takes Down Latexo, 7-4
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
LATEXO – The Grapeland Sandiettes hit the road on Friday evening as they traveled south on US Hwy 287 to Latexo for a game with the Lady Tigers.
Both teams had been placed in Region IV by the UIL at the start of the season and both had lost their District 25-2A opener. The Sandiettes had been tripped by the Leon Lady Cougars, 13-2, while the Lady Tigers had dropped an 11-1 decision to the Centerville Lady Tigers.
The Friday evening contest saw the Lady Tigers lead through most of the game, but a seventh inning rally by the Sandiettes spelled trouble for the the girls in green as they fell by a final score of 7-4.
Taylor Dise was in the circle for Latexo and led off the game by forcing Kiera DeCluette to fly out to center. Makayla McCombs was up next and lined a single into center field. Kayleigh Lively popped up to short for the second out.
McCombs moved to third on a passed ball and a single from Jaycee Graham, but that was as far as she would get as Cheyenne Lomax flew out to center to end the Grapeland threat.
Charlee Biano got the Lady Tigers offense going in the bottom half of the inning. She singled off of Jaycee Graham who got the nod for last Friday’s game. Biano stole second and then third following her single.
When Shelby Eberts grounded out to short, Biano trotted home with the game’s first score. Natalie Nicol was up next and grounded out to third while Dise followed with a ground out to end the inning with Latexo up by a score of 1-0.
After a quiet second inning, the Sandiettes tied things up in the top of the third. DeCluette singled up the middle to lead things off and stole second on a 0-1 pitch. After McCombs lined out, Lively slapped a single up the middle to plate DeCluette and tie the score at one.
The Sandiettes were unable to build on the run and the Lady Tigers answered back in their half of the inning. Sydney Furrh started off the bottom of the third with a walk. She stole second and moved to third on a groundout to first.
Eberts was up next and lofted a fly ball to center. The ball was deep enough to allow Furrh to tag up and scamper home to put the Lady Tigers back on top, 2-1.
After tying the game in the fifth, the Sandiettes took the lead when they crossed the dish twice in the sixth. After Haley Boehm grounded out to open the inning, Jessi Cunningham slapped a single into center. DeCluette followed with a triple and when Cunningham crossed the plate, the Sandiettes had their first lead of the game at 3-2.
An error in the infield allowed DeCluette to pad the Grapeland lead but that was all the Sandiettes could muster as Dise re-grouped to end the threat.
Trailing 4-2, the Lady Tigers answered back. Biano led off the bottom of the sixth with a single into center. She moved to second on a passed ball and came home to score when Eberts ripped a double into the left-center field gap to make the score 4-3.
Nicol was up next and sacrificed Eberts to third. Dise followed Nicol in the order and on the first pitch she saw she lofted a ball to the outfielder Anna Cutshaw who caught the ball but was unable to catch Eberts who tagged up and scored to tie the game at four.
Graham worked her way out of the inning and when Grapeland came in for the seventh, they knew this was their best chance to pull out the win.
Kalani Barnett led off with a 6-3 force out but Haley Boehm followed with a single. Cunningham was up next and laced a single into left, moving Boehm to second. DeCluette was up next and on a 0-1 pitch, she turned on the ball and blasted a 3-run homer over the right field fence to give Grapeland a 7-4 lead.
At that point, Biano came on in relief of Dise and managed to close out the inning.
It looked like the Lady Tigers might have one more comeback left in them as Latexo put the first two batters in the bottom of the seventh on base. Graham, however, had different plans and retired the next three batters she faced to end the game and hand the Sandiettes the 7-4 victory.
Graham picked up the win with seven innings of work. She yielded four runs on five hits, struck out five and walked one.
Dise was saddled with the loss after she went 6.1 innings. She gave up 18 hits which led to seven runs. Dise also struck out four and walked two.
At the plate, DeCluette led the Sandiettes by going 4-5, with four RBI, four runs and one homerun. Biano was 2-4 for the Lady Tigers with two runs while Shelby Eberts was 1-4 with three RBI.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
