Lovelady Takes Game One, 10-0
Lady Lions Pitching, Hitting Dominates Lady Eagles
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
TYLER – The Lovelady Lady Lions continued their postseason journey on Tuesday evening as they traveled to Tyler Legacy High School to take on the Como Pickton Lady Eagles in Game One of their best-of-three Regional Semifinals series.
The two teams met last year during the same round of the playoffs with the Lady Lions winning the series 2-0 (7-6 and 18-7). This year, the Lady Lions came into the contest ranked #5 in the May 16 TGCA poll with a record of 29-4-2 while the Lady Eagles were ranked right behind them at #6 with a 31-3 mark.
On paper, it should have been a great opening game of the series. In reality, it wasn’t. Lovelady dominated from the pitching circle and at the plate while Como Pickton made several costly errors as the Lady Lions took Game One by a final of 10-0 in five innings.
Macie LaRue was in the pitcher’s circle for Lovelady and continued her postseason dominance of opposing batters.
As the game got underway, LaRue caught Bella Romero and Lauren Lewellen watching as strike three sailed by for two quick outs. Mattison Buster was intentionally walked, but in a sign of things to come, Addi Monk followed Buster to the plate and hit a grounder into right.
On the play, Shyanne Pipkin charged the ball, fielded it cleanly and threw out Monk at first base for the third out.
When the Lady Lions came in from the field, they took the early lead. Buster was in the circle for the Lady Eagles and gave up an infield hit to lead-off batter Mihyia Davis. She moved up a base on a throwing error and when Scout Lovell hit a rocket to left, Davis showed off her speed and raced home. Lovell moved to second on the throw in from the outfield.
Haven Prager was up next, but popped up to first. Linda Martinez followed in the order and was intentionally walked. Morgan Womack kept the inning going as she sacrificed Lovell to third and Martinez to second.
It’s been said two-out hits will get you to heaven and if that’s the case, Rylee Biedrzycki must be living right as she roped a double into left to drive in both Lovell and Martinez. LaRue grounded out to end the Lovelady at-bat, but after the first inning, the Lady Lions led 3-0.
In the second, LaRue showed why she made All-State last year and will probably make it again this year as she struck out four batters. First, she fanned Alyssa Corona and Cali Morris. Then, she got Bree Vanginault to swing and miss at strike three. On the play, however, the ball squirted away from Womack behind the plate, allowing Vanginault to reach first safely. Undeterred, LaRue came back to strike out Judah Van Rijn on four pitches to retire the side.
Lovelady doubled its lead in the second when they came in from the field. After both Pipkin and Bailee Albinus struck out, Davis singled into right. With Lovell in the batter’s box, Davis swiped second. When Lovell slapped a double into left, Davis motored home.
Prager was up next and she drove in Lovell with a triple to right. Martinez was intentionally walked for the second time in two innings while Womack singled to center to push Prager across the plate. That was all the Lady Lions would get, but at the end of two Lovelady now led 6-0.
LaRue led off the third with a walk to Morris and was replaced at first by Sanay Diaz, who came in as a courtesy runner. On a 2-2 count, however, Diaz strayed a little too far off of the bag and Womack gunned her down at first base.
That seemed to take the steam out of Como Pickton as Romero grounded into a 6-3 force at first while Lewellen tried to bunt her way on but was thrown out by Martinez from her third base position.
The wheels fell off defensively for the Lady Eagles in the bottom of the third. Both Pipkin and Albinus reached on errors. With Davis at the plate, Buster unleashed a wild pitch which allowed Pipkin to score and gave Albinus the chance to move to third.
An infield single from Davis plated Albinus to make it 8-0, but the Lady Lions would not be able to add any more as the game moved into the fourth.
A 1-2-3 inning from LaRue brought the Lady Lions back in from the field and the Como Pickton defensive woes cost them yet again. Womack led off with a single and took second when nobody covered the bag. Biedrzycki followed with a bunt and moved to second on another unforced error.
LaRue lined out to short to bring Pipkin to the plate. Pipkin dropped a perfect bunt and beat the throw to first. On the play, however, Womack scored. Pipkin turned the wrong way and the first baseman began to chase her to apply the tag.
Apparently, the Lady Eagles forgot about Biedrzycki who had moved to third on the Pipkin bunt. As the first baseman was chasing Pipkin, Biedrzycki strolled her way down the third base line and crossed the dish to make the score 10-0.
That was all the Lady Lions would need as LaRue closed out the game in the top of the fifth to send Lovelady to the Game One win, run-ruling Como Pickton by a score of 10-0.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
