Lady Blues move into first with win over Honeybees

A few games remain in the regular season, but for the Lady Blues, their matchup against the Stephenville Honeybees this week was one of the most important games thus far.

For two teams with almost identical district records at the time, the winner of this game would move into first place in the district standings. The Lady Blues played a complete game all around and pulled out a clutch 3-1 victory over the Honeybees to take sole possession of first place.

Graham has had the pleasure of not playing too many close games this season, as a lot of their wins have come with a lot of runs scored. But in this intense matchup, the two teams battled for the entire game and the Lady Blues came out on top.

“That was a seven inning team effort; it could have gone one way or the other,” head coach Adam Arrington said. “The energy was high. It's been high all district and the girls are playing hard, competing hard, and I'm really proud of them.”

With the win, Graham has an overall season record of 19-7 and a 4-1 record in district to hold first place. Meanwhile, Stephenville moved to 10-12 overall with a 3-3 record in district play. The Honeybees currently sit in fourth place in district after the loss, but second, third and fourth place are all within one game of each other in the standings.

Pitching on both sides was key in this one, as each team sent out their best. Graham was led by senior Reese Calhoun in the circle, who kept her team in control with 5 2/3 innings pitched, only giving up two hits, one earned run and striking out seven batters.

Calhoun’s only struggles came in that sixth inning of work as she allowed a single and three walks to give Stephenville a run and left the bases loaded as junior Zoey Harrell came on in relief.

Facing one of the Honeybees’ most dangerous hitters, Harrell struck her out on four pitches to end the Stephenville threat and keep her team’s lead. The junior went on to shut down the visitors in their final at bats to put a cap on Graham’s huge victory.

“Reese gives us routine ground balls and fly balls; (Stephenville) didn’t hit the ball hard today,” Arrington said. “But Zoey comes in, she’s got good control of it… she’s a competitor. I’ll take either of those two in the circle any day.”

Graham’s three runs were hard earned and came in three separate innings. Senior Olga Morales scored in the third inning after she singled, stole second and third base and reached home on a RBI groundout from senior Meagan Brooks.

In Stephenville’s half of the fourth inning, the Lady Blues defense made a play that likely changed the course of the game.

The Honeybees led off with a double to center field. The next batter flew out to deep right field. The runner on second base tagged up and headed to third, and as Larissa Warren’s throw in from right field missed the cutoff, Stephenville’s runner rounded third and headed for home.

Morales scooped the ball up from behind second base and fired a perfect throw home to catcher Brooks, who applied the tag and nailed the runner for a huge double play. It kept the Honeybees off the board for the time being and provided a boost of momentum for Graham.

“There was a throwing error on there but it worked out; I guess it kind of baited them in (to running home),” Arrington said.

The Lady Blues scored again in the fourth inning with two singles and Harrell making it home on a passed ball to put the team up 2-0. Graham built up the lead with their third run in the fifth inning when Brooks came around to score from second base on a single by senior Paris Tate.

Those three runs would be more than enough for the pitching dominance of Calhoun and Harrell, who shut down Stephenville and Graham celebrated the enormous victory.

“There are a lot of different teams in the state of Texas, but I’ll take this group any day,” Arrington said.