Lady Cards advance after three innings

Posted

SHINER — Their first playoff game didn’t even last an hour as Shiner St. Paul took down Huntsville Alpha Omega in three innings, winning the bout 15-0.

“We’ve been playing well the last couple of weeks,” Lady Cardinals’ head coach Lance Giese said. “If we can eliminate the walks and play great defense I think we have the chance to beat anybody. It’s a good start, good start to the playoffs.”

Defensive plays were not need as much with Sadie Morgan taking the mound in Tuesday’s game. Morgan gave up no walks in the three innings pitched, striking out five and allowing no hits in the perfect game.

“The pitching was excellent, any time you have no walks and no hits and no errors it’s excellent,” Giese said. “The thing I stress is no walks for our pitchers. If we can limit it to one or two that would be great, we got a chance.”

At the plate, the Lady Cardinals had much success at the top of the lineup with Riley Johnson batting 4-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored. Second in the lineup was Grace Irvin who also had a big game, batting 3-for-3 with three runs scored, four RBIs and a double.

“Our one and two hitters, they’ve done a great job all year of leading off,” Giese said. “Not just those ladies, we’ve had a great year the whole year. We got a great lineup. I was doing the averages this past week at our district meeting and I think our lowest ones are around .310-.315. We got a good lineup up and down and Riley and Grace set the table.”

From the four spot, Parker Clay went 3-for-3, all singles with two RBIs and a run scored.

After scoring just two runs in the first, the Lady Cardinals added four in the second and finished out the game with nine in the third for the 15-run rule. With Anna Ademek on third and Trinity Kusak on second, Johnson knocked a ball through the gap for the game-ending, two-RBI double.

Despite what seemed like an easy win, Giese knows that there are aspects of the game that still need to be worked on.

“We were talking about base running,” Giese advised. “ [We] got to do better base running. They’re learning. I got a very young team and they’re learning. Base running, we got to clean up. It’s been a process throughout the year, we had one good and one bad…we’re getting better at it.”

As the Lady Cardinals advance through the playoffs, they know that they will be taking on tougher competition.

Those “little things like base running” may be the difference between a win or a loss, Giese explained.

Last night the Lady Cardinals traveled to Waco ISD to take on Richardson Canyon Lake winning 13-1. They advance to the state tournament, going up against their rivals in Hallettsville Sacred Heart in the state semifinal next Friday, May 13. The game is set for 9 a.m. at Sweeny High School.

Comments