Lady Blues softball sweeps double-header

The Lady Blues softball team played two games Friday, Feb. 16, one of which was full of drama and featured a late-game comeback while the other went smoother. But Graham came out on top in both matchups and moved to 3-0 early in their season.

Due to impending weather, Graham, 3A school Iowa Park and 5A Denton met in Graham for games against each other. The Lady Blues defeated Denton 3-2 in extra innings and followed that up a few hours later with an 8-2 victory over Iowa Park.

Listed below are more stats and information on each of the big wins for Graham as they stayed undefeated in this early portion of the season.

Lady Blues v. Denton (W), 3-2

After needing just five innings to win their season-opener a few days before, the Lady Blues faced a challenge against the Denton Broncos. The two teams battled it out all game and it wasn’t until the final two innings that Graham made the comeback for the win.

Pitcher Reese Calhoun had once again pitched a great game, only allowing two runs, one of them unearned, in the entire game. But the Lady Blues’ offense hadn’t been able to get anything going and they went into the bottom of the seventh inning trailing 2-0.

After two quick outs and down to their final one, Calhoun hit a single to center field. The next batter, Meagan Brooks, tripled to right field to score Calhoun, and then scored herself on an error by Denton to tie the game at 2-2.

In Denton’s half of the eighth inning, Calhoun struck out the side, with only one runner reaching on an error. That set Graham up for the heroics in their half of the extra inning.

Two of the first three Lady Blues got out with Peyton Dobbs reaching base on a walk. Mayci Ryans kept the inning alive with a single to center field to have runners on first and second for leadoff hitter Paris Tate.

The senior Tate ended the game with a hard ground ball past second base into the outfield which allowed Dobbs to round third and score the winning run. The Lady Blues walked off with a 3-2 win and a lot of momentum behind them.

Tate finished the game 2-for-4 with one RBI, Brooks ended 1-for-4 with one RBI and a run scored. Calhoun pitched all eight innings in which she gave up six hits, two runs and struck out 10 batters.

Lady Blues v. Iowa Park (W), 8-2

Graham’s win over the Lady Hawks involved much less drama as the Lady Blues’ offense sparked early and they rode it to the win.

The middle of the lineup got the scoring started in the second inning for Graham as Olga Morales, Zoey Harrell and Dobbs recorded three straight hits to put up two runs in the frame.

The Lady Blues kept it up in the next inning as they tacked on three more runs thanks to more timely hits and an Iowa Park error.

Harrell drove in two runs with a single to center field followed by Dobbs grounding into a fielder’s choice but scoring another run and Graham led 5-0 after three innings.

In the pitching circle, Calhoun was back in business, keeping the Lady Hawks at bay through the first four innings of the game. In total, she pitched all seven innings, gave up four hits, two runs (one earned) and struck out seven batters.

Iowa Park scored a run in both the fifth and the sixth inning to close the gap to 5-2, but Graham responded with three more runs in their half of the sixth to finish the game with the 8-2 win.

Harrell had a big game going 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a run scored. Morales went 1-for-2 with one RBI and two runs scored while Brooks went 2-for-4 with a run scored, as well.

The Lady Blues will compete in the Abilene ISD tournament this weekend from Thursday, Feb. 22 through Saturday, Feb. 24 and then they will hit the road Tuesday, Feb. 27 for a game against Peaster.