SOFTBALL ROUNDUP | White Oak blistering folks; Overton’s Nobles gets walk-off home run
Gilmer dealt Henderson a 2-0 loss in Henderson Tuesday night in District 17-4A softball play.
The loss snapped the Lady Lions’ four-game winning streak, and kept them in second place in the district. Henderson has played nine district games and is 7-2. Gilmer (9-0 in 17-4A) is in first place and unbeaten in district, with everyone having only one game left.
The top four teams make the playoffs. Carthage (5-4 in district play) is in third, and Center (3-6) is in fourth. Spring Hill, for the record, is in fifth place (2-7), and Kilgore (1-8) is in sixth, although the Lady Bulldogs do have a victory over Spring Hill this season, the Lady Bulldogs’ lone district win.
Around the district Tuesday night, in addition to Gilmer-Henderson, Carthage run-ruled Spring Hill, 17-3, and Center edged Kilgore, 7-6.
Gilmer 2, Henderson 0: Addy Davis, Chloe Ellis, McKenna Moon and Taniya Vanzandt each had singles for the Lady Lions in the game, but they came up short in their bid to bring Gilmer a game closer to the rest of the 17-4A pack.
Ellis took the loss on the mound, even though she had a good pitching performance, with 11 strikeouts.
For Gilmer, Kennedy Jordan had a double and an RBI, and Alexis Kemp had a single.She also got the win on the mound, and had nine strikeouts.
Henderson (20-9 overall) will finish the regular season at Spring Hill on Friday, a 6 p.m. varsity start.
Center 7, Kilgore 6: Center needed every at-bat Tuesday night to knock off a Kilgore team that had allowed at least nine runs in its nine previous games leading up to that one.
But the Lady Riders scored in the bottom of the seventh, an RBI single by Bailey Miller to score Julie Bird for the game-winner to break a 6-6 tie and give Center the win.
Bird had a big night. She had a home run earlier in the game, and had hit an RBI double to tie it at six.
For Kilgore in the game, Thaiona Moore and Eva Ray each had two hits – Ray and Moore each had a double as part of that, and Jae’la Williams also had a double.
Kilgore, coached by first-year head coach Lacey Middlebrooks, will finish the season at home against Carthage on Friday, a 6 p.m. start. Center finishes its regular season at district-leading Gilmer on Friday, starting at 7:30.
DISTRICT 15-3A
White Oak edged Hughes Springs on Monday, then beat Gladewater handily on Tuesday to complete the regular season with a 9-0 record, the District 16-3A champions.
New Diana is second in district play. Hughes Springs (6-3) is third, and Sabine (3-6), fourth. Daingerfield is fifth, and Gladewater (0-9), sixth.
When the UIL playoff pairings are set, ETBlitz.com will announce them on the site, and on social media.
White Oak 2, Hughes Springs 1 (Monday): Larkin Daniels, who recently passed over 1,000 career strikeouts, just keeps on going for coach Ninevah Blankenship’s Ladynecks, as they had to win a close one at home against the Lady Mustangs on Monday.
Daniels had 10 strikeouts in the win, and got help on offense from teammate Addison McClanahan, a recent Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Player of the Week, who hit a two-run home run early in the game, the only two runs the Ladynecks would score – or need, as it turned out.
White Oak 17, Gladewater 0 (Tuesday): The McClanahan-Daniels connection kept going the next night in a rout of Gladewater.
McClanahan darn near hit for the cycle. She had a triple, a double, a single and 3 RBI in the win, and Daniels allowed only one hit and had eight strikeouts. Jaidyn Marshall had a double, a single and an RBI and Graycen Sipes had two singles and 2 RBI.
Hughes Springs 11, Sabine 0 (Tuesday): Breanna Hill had Sabine’s only hit in the regular season finale for both teams. Maggie Pate was on the mound for Hughes Springs, giving up just the one hit, with six strikeouts and five walks in the win.
DISTRICT 16-3A
This district is close as it comes to the finish.
Troup and Jefferson are each 9-2, Arp is right behind at 8-3. Tatum is technically fourth (6-5).
On Friday, it’s the final night of regular season play. Troup hosts Arp at 7 p.m., and Tatum hosts Jefferson at 6. West Rusk, which has pretty much ran this district in recent years, is fifth in the district standings, and Elysian Fields is sixth – both of them only have two wins and are likely out of any postseason possibilities. They play each other on Friday, West Rusk at Elysian Fields, at 5:30 p.m.
DISTRICT 19-2A
Overton lost its very first district game, but then reeled off nine straight and looks to be the district champion here, especially after beating Hawkins, 8-7, on Monday night and getting a couple of long-balls to do so.
Kayla Nobles had the last word in the game, literally: a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh, with two outs, that gave Overton that 8-7 win over the Lady Hawks, who led 5-1 after three innings.
Anna Perkins had a grand-slam as part of a five-run fourth inning for Overton (9-1 in district play). Halle Mayfield had a double and a single. Kelsey Vaught got the win on the mound: six strikeouts and walked none in the complete-game victory.