Lady Bears and Lady Cardinals ready for rematch

The first half of the district games is complete with the Little Cypress Mauriceville Lady Bears and the Bridge City Lady Cardinals holding the top two positions in the District 19-4A softball standings. The Lady Bears and the Lady Cardinals played their second game against each other in the district on Tuesday, April 4, at Bridge City.

Little Cypress Mauriceville was 6-0 in district going into Tuesday's game in Bridge City with the Lady Cardinals right behind with a record of 6-1. The Lady Bears won the first meeting at home against the Lady Cardinals 4-2 back in the second week of March.

Coach Dena Adkins believes Little Cypress Mauriceville is playing like a first place team. "The Lady Bears did what I asked them to do. They came out and played their best to make us six and oh for the first half. My defense has really been impressive, backing up the bats, backing up the pitcher, and it's just really good to see it all come together," Adkins responded.

Last week the Lady Bears played only one game against the sixth place Silsbee Lady Tigers. Little Cypress Mauriceville kept its district record unblemished on Tuesday, March 28, with a 10-0 win at home.

Starting pitcher Ella Stephenson had a rough outing in the circle her previous game not even getting out of the first inning before being relieved. Stephenson had her best stuff against Silsbee though throwing a no-hitter for five innings before the game was called because of the ten-run rule.

Adkins expressed her confidence in Stephenson that Ella would bounce back from her subpar outing the week before. "I knew she could do it. Ella regrouped, found her stuff again, she fixed whatever was bothering her, and she came out and she shined. She did a great job," Adkins praised.

Stephenson overpowered Silsbee's offense striking out twelve of the nineteen batters she faced while walking four. Of the three pitches that were put in play by the Lady Tigers all were fielded by the Lady Bears and only one was hit hard with third baseman Keylie Washburn snatching a laser of a line drive about shoulder height to her left.

Washburn provided all the offense the Lady Bears required in the first inning. Leadoff hitter Eden Frenzel tripled to right field, and then Keylie hit what appeared to be a for sure sacrifice fly to deep center field but the ball continued to carry until it cleared the fence for a two-run homerun to put Little Cypress Mauriceville up 2-0 after only two batters.

Lexis Moss followed with a triple to left. Moss scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Ava Wright to give the Lady Bears a 3-0 lead after the first inning.

Helping the LCM offense with her bat and her legs was Stephenson in the second inning when her single to center went past the Lady Tiger outfielder and Ella raced around to third base. She scored LCM's fourth run on a groundout by Frenzel.

Two more Lady Bears scored in the third with the rally starting after there were two outs. Ava White singled and came home on a Silsbee throwing error that allowed Tessa Erickson to reach second base. Ansley Moore delivered a clutch two-out single to left to drive home Erickson.

Silsbee changed pitchers in the bottom of the fourth but the Lady Bears greeted her by the first four hitters reaching base. Stephenson singled, Frenzel bunted for a hit, Washburn grounded to second which scored Ella and Eden when an error was made, and Moss then hit a towering fly ball to left that left the park for a two-run homer bringing the score to 10-0 for Little Cypress Mauriceville.

Meanwhile Bridge City was playing at West Orange Stark that same night. The Lady Cardinals jumped out to an 11-1 lead in the second inning. After tallying a lone run in the third Bridge City blew it open with 12 runs in the fourth to invoke the 15-run rule with the score 24-1 after four innings.

Cambree LaComb was the winning pitcher for Bridge City surrendering just one run in the four innings. The Lady Cardinal hitting stars included Nicole Sasser who homered and drove in five runs while Haley Munoz and Brooklyn Droddy both drove in three runs.

Three days later on Friday, March 31, Bridge City defeated the Silsbee Lady Tigers to start the second half of district games. The Lady Cardinals won 11-1 at Silsbee.

Freshman Cambree LaComb and senior Kaydence Corkran both pitched three innings for Bridge City with LaComb getting credit for the win. The Lady Cardinals got two hits each from Haley Munoz, Nicole Sasser, Anna Autrey, Lexi Nugier, and Amaris Larkin.