Published: May 17, 2008 12:05 am            

Lady Cats fall to Hartselle in Montgomery

MONTGOMERY — Revenge is a dish best served cold — as the Lady Bearcats found out in Montgomery.

After a heart-stopping extra inning victory over Hartselle in the Class 5A, Area 13 championship game, Cullman High’s softball team knew the Lady Tigers would be out for vengeance when the two met Friday in the loser’s bracket at the state tournament in Montgomery.

And that’s exactly what Hartselle got at Lagoon Park. A fired up Lady Tigers team scored five times in the top of the first and cruised to a 9-0 victory Friday afternoon, knocking Cullman out of the AHSAA state softball tournament.

Cullman coach Marc Ponder knew it would be a tough task as soon as he saw the bracket.

“It’s been one-run games the whole year when we’ve played (Hartselle),” Ponder said after the game. “They just pitched it better than us, fielded it and hit it better than us.”

The Lady Tigers wasted no time grabbing a lead, batting around in the first inning while the first six batters reached safely. Sara Lang and Chandler Orr hit RBI singles and Hayden Watts capped the inning with a two-run double after Audrey McClanahan scored on a wild pitch.

Hartselle added two runs in the fifth, and one each in the sixth and seventh, all while Hartselle starter Breanna Riley held Cullman to just four hits all day.

The Lady Bearcats’ best chance came in the fourth, when Erin Lopez hit a one-out ground rule double to right center. But Riley struck out T.J. Huddleston and Alison Meriwether to end the threat.

Ponder was puzzled by the lack of offense.

“I have no idea,” said Ponder. “We have no excuses. We’ve had those kind of days before, and it just happened today.”

Riley got the win for Hartselle, striking out x in seven innings. She walked x.

Lopez led Cullman with two hits, while Cork and Jenny Haney added one each.

Hartselle got three hits from Lang while Watts, Kimmie Minor and Kristy Pevamouse added two apiece.

After the game, parents and fans consoled the Lady Bearcats, who were left in tears after playing for the final time with the senior trio of Cassie Gable, Lacey Cork and Alison Meriwether.

“We didn’t dwell on a whole lot of negatives,” Ponder said of what he told his team after the game. “We have a great group of three seniors that I couldn’t be any prouder of.”

The Lady Tigers advanced to play either Mortimer Jordan or Springville today at 9 a.m.



St. Paul’s 8,

Cullman 2

In the first game of the day, the Lady Saints broke open a tight 3-2 game with five runs in the sixth.

With the bases loaded and nobody out, St. Paul’s Rachel Birkert singled to make it 4-2. Kourtnee Owens and Hayley Praytor followed with consecutive two-run singles, putting the game out of reach.

Ponder said Cullman was hurt by the small-ball offense of the Lady Saints, who collected four infield hits and laid down three sacrifice bunts.

“That hurt us,” Ponder said. “That was their game plan. We didn’t field it. I’m not making excuses, but the field was slow and that played to their advantage.

Lopez tied the game in the bottom of the first with an opposite-field two-run homer after Gable led off with a single. The Lady Saints scored twice in the first on RBIs by Owens and Praytor.

St. Paul’s added one in the fourth on a run-scoring single by Allie Pruitt.

Lopez, Gable, Meriwether and Abbie Knight had the only hits for Cullman, which ended the season at 46-16.

        

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