Lady Blues win back-to-back district championships

The Lady Blues went into their regular season finale at Mineral Wells needing a win to claim an outright district title.

Graham met the challenge head on as the Lady Blues ran away with a 13-7 win over the Lady Rams to earn the championship — the second in a row for the program.

Although the final score indicated an easy win, Mineral Wells put up a fight, and after six innings, Graham only led by two runs at 9-7. However, the Lady Blues’ offense rekindled the fire in the final inning as they put up four more runs in the frame before pitcher Reese Calhoun shut down the home team to secure the victory.

“It was great. We knew Mineral Wells wasn’t going to lay down, they were going to fight; it’s their senior night,” head coach Adam Arrington said. “... I think we had a lot of district games this year that are going to prepare us for the playoffs. Last year, we walked through a lot of games… and this year we’ve had to fight some and I think that’s better for us.”

The Lady Blues found success early on against the Lady Rams’ starting pitcher as five of the first six batters reached base on singles. Those hits scored two early runs in the first inning to back Calhoun in the pitching circle for Graham.

After the senior shut down Mineral Wells in the first inning, the Lady Blues tacked on three more runs in their half of the second. A couple of singles from Larissa Warren and Olga Morales turned into two runs thanks to a double from Meagan Brooks, and she scored a batter later when Emily Lawson reached on an error.

In the third and fourth innings, Graham put up four more runs while Mineral Wells broke through for one. The biggest hit came from Mayci Ryans who hit a triple to deep center field, which missed being a home run by just a few feet. That scored Payton Dobbs to give the Lady Blues a 9-1 lead through three and a half innings.

Things unraveled a bit for Graham in the bottom half of the fourth as the home team Lady Rams scored four runs in the frame to cut into the big deficit. It was a combination of walks, hits and Lady Blues errors that helped Mineral Wells get back in the game.

Arrington got another pitcher ready in case any further damage occurred, but Calhoun got out of the inning and cruised through the fifth inning before running into more trouble in the sixth.

A Mineral Wells single, triple and productive ground out turned into two more runs as Graham’s lead was trimmed to 9-7. But Arrington stuck with his senior and she got the final out of the inning before shutting down the Lady Rams in the seventh.

“We’ve got to attack the zone and we were walking some people and I think (Calhoun) was getting frustrated, dealing with a little pressure and stuff like that,” the coach said. “But she’s a senior and you’re going to put the ball in your senior’s hand and let her go out there and take care of business, and she battled through and came back and settled down and got the remaining outs.”

The Lady Blues’ bats came alive in the seventh inning to break the game back open and Calhoun put the final three Lady Rams down in order to secure the district championship for Graham for the second year in a row.

Brooks finished the game a perfect 4-for-4 with three runs scored and four RBIs while Ryans and Paris Tate each went 3-for-5.

Morales went 2-for-5 with three runs scored in the leadoff spot and a handful of other Lady Blues recorded hits.

“We’ve just got to keep the momentum rolling and clean up the defense a little bit more and good things will happen,” Arrington said.