Lady Blues have strong showing at Abilene tourney

Although the perfect start to the season came to an end, the Lady Blues softball team continued to showcase their talent at a tournament in Abilene over the weekend of Feb. 22-24.

The Lady Blues opened their season with four straight wins and picked up another in their first game of the tournament before suffering their first loss of the season in the second game. However, they bounced back and finished the tournament strong and came back with a 3-1 record in four games.

Listed below are results, stats and information about each of the team’s performances throughout their tournament run.

Lady Blues v. Sweetwater, (W) 8-1

Graham made a strong first impression in the tournament with a big win over Sweetwater. The offense clicked while pitcher Reese Calhoun dominated in the pitching circle. The senior pitched six innings, gave up just one unearned run and struck out nine batters.

The offense gave Calhoun an early lead to work with as catcher Meagan Brooks smacked a home run to center field in the bottom of the first inning. The Lady Mustangs answered with a run of their own a couple innings later, but that’s all they would get the rest of the game.

Calhoun helped herself out with an RBI single in the third inning, and the Lady Blues went on to score six more runs on singles and Sweetwater errors throughout the rest of the game.

Brooks finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI, Zoey Harrell, Peyton Dobbs and Calhoun each had two hits, as well, and Mayci Ryans finished 1-for-3 with an RBI.

Lady Blues v. Snyder, (L) 12-8

This matchup came down to the final inning as the teams traded runs all game before heading to the seventh inning tied 8-8. In tournaments, teams typically play six innings instead of seven so the final inning was extra.

Calhoun ran into some trouble in the circle in the final inning, as she allowed two singles and a three-run home run to the Lady Tigers to give them the 12-8 lead. Graham couldn’t answer in their half of the inning and took their first loss of the season.

Olga Morales went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI and Harrell went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, as well.

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

In their closest game of the season, the Lady Blues pulled out a great win in extra innings over the Lady Eagles.

Abilene took a 2-0 lead after the first two innings with a few timely hits. In the fourth inning, Calhoun doubled to lead off and scored on a Morales pop fly that dropped for an error.

In the fifth inning, Dobbs was the first batter of the inning and tied the game on a solo home run to center field to make it 2-2.

The score stayed that way until the top of the eighth inning, when Dobbs scored on an RBI groundout from Paris Tate. Harrell, who pitched the whole game for Graham, shut the door on Abilene in their final at-bats.

Lady Blues v. Early, (W) 5-3

To wrap up their tournament run, the Lady Blues pulled out a win over the Early Lady Horns in five innings.

Graham fell behind 3-1 after two innings but knew they’d be able to bounce back, which they did in the third inning. Calhoun walked, Brooks and Lawson both singled, then Morales scored two with a single to center field to tie the game at 3-3.

In the fifth inning, Lawson doubled, Morales singled and Harrell scored them both with a double to right field to give the Lady Blues the 5-3 win to cap off their tournament performance.

Morales finished 2-for-2 with a run scored and two RBIs, Harrell went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Lawson batted 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI.