Softball teams heading to post season

The regular season concluded after the third week of April for the local high school softball teams. Bridge City, Little Cypress Mauriceville, and Orangefield will be participating in the post season.

The Bridge City Cardinals completed the District 19-4A schedule undefeated to claim the district championship. In twelve district games the Cardinals outscored their opponents 104-2 with pitcher Carson Fall throwing six no hitters.

Bridge City shutout Jasper 10-0 on Tuesday, April 16, as senior Fall threw five perfect innings. Seniors Haley Munoz, Lexi Nugier, and Laurie Barg combined for four hits to lead the Cardinal offense. A fifth senior Anna Autrey has been a key contributor for the Cardinals all season.

Bridge City closed the regular season winning 20-1 at West Orange-Stark on Friday. Sophomore Cambree LaComb pitched the game for the Cardinals and got the win. WOS seniors Jordynn Patton and Crystal Santibanez were recognized before the game.

The regular season was extended for the Little Cypress Mauriceville Lady Bears as they and the Lumberton Lady Raiders both had 9-3 district records after their games on Friday, April 19, forcing a game at Jasper on Monday, April 22, to determine second and third place in the district. LCM got homeruns from Lexis Moss, Jacelyn Cook, and Keylie Washburn who also had a two run triple in the first, but the Lady Raiders' Bella Hebert hit a pair of two run homers the second a walk off blast in the bottom of the seventh with two outs to give Lumberton a 10-8 victory to take second place in the district.

Little Cypress Mauriceville will play Livingston in the opening round of the state playoffs in a best of three series on Friday and Saturday, April 26-27, in Cleveland. Livingston finished second in District 20-4A losing in district only to the district champion Liberty Lady Panthers which are 30-1 on the season.

LCM seniors Abigail Granger, Ava Wright, Jacelyn Cook, and Alex Pinder were recognized before the game on Tuesday, April 16. The Lady Bears won easily 22-0 in just three innings against West Orange-Stark.

Cook got the win allowing a lone hit to Latessa Turner of the Lady Mustangs and striking out six during her three innings of pitching. Eden Frenzel scored four times for LCM which was one more run than Lexis Moss, Wright, and Ella Stephenson each tallied.

Little Cypress Mauriceville beat the Lady Tigers 17-0 in four innings on Friday at Silsbee. Tessa Erickson was the winning pitcher for the Lady Bears yielding one hit and one walk with four strikeouts.

Erickson knocked in three runs as she joined teammates Lexis Moss and Keylie Washburn in hitting homeruns. Jacelyn Cook collected three hits, three runs, and three runs batted in.

Orangefield won two games last week to stretch its winning streak to six games in a row and capture second place in District 21-3A. The Lady Bobcats whipped Warren 10-0 on Monday, April 15, in a makeup game that was rained out the previous Tuesday night, and they handled Hardin 5-1 the following night in the district finale.

Hallee Becker scored the first of her three runs in the win against Warren to get the scoring started during the first inning for Orangefield. Alysen Vincent added a two run single to put the Lady Bobcats up 3-0 after one inning.

Four more runs scored in the second with the big blow being Charlee Sanches' two run homerun. Sanches duplicated the feat with her second homer of the game in the fourth to give the Lady Bobcats a ten run advantage.

Abigail Curphey pitched the first four innings for the Lady Bobcats allowing only a walk and a Warren batter to reach on an error both in the first inning. Sanches pitched the fifth inning and surrendered the only hit for Warren, but she also struck out the side to wrap up the 10-0 victory.

On Tuesday night Charlee Sanches started in the circle for Orangefield. Sanches pitched a complete game victory giving up four hits with five strikeouts in seven innings against Hardin.

The hitting star for the Lady Bobcats was Aubree Beck with two doubles, two runs scored, and one run driven in. Haylee Spears hit a double with two runs knocked in, and Paris Becker had an important rbi in the 5-1 win.

Pitching is a strength for Orangefield with either Abigail Curphey or Charlee Sanches in the circle. "Abigail has been pitching well lately and that's encouraging going into next weekend with bi-district. Charlee's really done a good job for us this season. She pitched a little bit for us a year ago, but this year we've really relied on her quite a bit more. It's good to have a one two punch with Curphey and then with Charlee, so I'm proud of them and proud of the way they've been throwing," Orangefield Coach Rebekah Ragsdale praised.

The Orangefield Lady Bobcats (24-8-1, 12-2) will be facing a familiar opponent in the first round of the Class 3A state softball playoffs. Orangefield will play the Central Heights Blue Devils who the Lady Bobcats defeated in the first round of last year's playoffs.

The series will be a best of three played at the Jasper High School softball field. The first game will be Friday, April 26, at 6:00 PM, the second game will be played Saturday, April 27, at noon, and a third game if necessary will follow that afternoon at about 2:00 PM.