Lady Leopards go 3-0 in Indian Classic

The Malvern Lady Leopards capped off last week with a 4-1 record with three wins coming in the Indian Classic tournament hosted at Poyen High School.

The Lady Leopards opened tournament play by defeating Poyen, 5-0, then beating Cossatot River, 9-5. The Lady Leopards then opened 7-4A conference play on the road against Nashville and lost 9-5 despite battling hard in the end. The Lady Leopards then got back on the winning side Thursday with a shutout against Hot Spring County rivals, Glen Rose, 9-0. The Lady Leopards then ended the week in the Indian Classic with a 10-3 win over the Magnet Cove Lady Panthers.

Lady Leopards head softball coach Darryl Baker overall was pleased with the Lady Leopards efforts this week and against the Lady Panthers Saturday. But Baker also saw areas of improvement for the Lady Leopards. “Overall I was pleased. I thought we did a pretty good job taking pitches and adjusting to what the umpire was doing. What we didn’t do well was our short game wasn’t very good at all, that was disappointing, and then we didn’t play very good defense in a couple of situation.”

In the first inning the Lady Leopards held the Lady Panthers to just three batters after getting a double play for two outs. The Lady Leopards then took the lead 1-0 after Ashlyn “A.J.” Fike scored off of an RBI by

Katelyn Minge.

The Lady Leopards continued to play strong defense in the top of the second inning again holding the Lady Panthers to just three batters. It was in the bottom of the second inning that the Lady Leopards really took control of the game. Bella Roseberry was the first batter up and was able to score when she hit a ball deep into the outfield. Hannah Carey was then walked and Aeila Saling was the first out but two more walks, with Chasney Cooper and Fike, loaded the bases. A fourth walk with Audrey Carr led to Carey scoring and with Minge getting hit by the pitch allowed Cooper to score. The Lady Panthers then switched pitchers, but the Lady Leopards weren’t done scoring. Lauren Golden hit a ball straight up the middle to bring in Fike to put the Lady Leopards up 5-0. Carr then scored during Josie Nix’s at bat after a mishandling by the Lady Panthers. Nix was then walked to base. Roseberry then came back with another big hit for two RBIs, Minge and Golden scoring, to put the Lady Leopards up 8-0. The final two runs came off a hit by Carey who brought in Nix and Roseberry for the final two runs.

From there it was all Lady Panthers for the next one and a half innings. With the bases loaded Bella Harville hit to left field to bring in Alexa Gangoso for the RBI. It was the only run though as the Lady Leopards were able to quickly get the third out after Gangoso scored.

Momentum stayed with the Lady Panthers through the bottom of the third, as they held the Lady Leopards scoreless, and through the top of the fourth inning. In the top of the fourth the Lady Panthers added another two runs to trail 10-3. The two runs came from one hit from Bethany Woods that brought Hadley Herrington and Gangoso home. The Lady Leopards were able to get the win though when Carey struckout the last batter for the Lady Panthers to get the third out.

“Overall we come out and got ahead 10 to nothing and then I think a couple of our girls started taking too many pitches and their girls, once they get those strikes, they three some tough pitches to hit,” Baker said. “We didn’t handle them very