Pauls Valley fast-pitch softball placed fourth in the Mia Tapia Memorial Tournament Aug. 15-16.
The Lady Panthers opened the tournament with an 8-2 win over Western Heights. The Jets took a first winning lead, 2-1.
In the second inning, Pauls Valley’s Paisley Tibbs hit a single to bat in two runs. Bella Smith and Tibbs stole home in the subsequent plays, putting the Lady Panthers up 5-2.
In the top of the third, Avri Crouch stole home, and Lily Rowland’s grounder batted in Kamryn Townley to finish the night’s scoring.
Rowland pitched the win with five strikeouts and one walk.
In the next round, the Lady Panthers fell 17-3 to Dickson. The Lady Comets scored 12 runs in the top of the fourth inning. Townley scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the third. Avri Crouch and Jessie Caldwell each batted in one run in the final inning.
“We could have easily hung our heads, but the evening ended pretty decently. We grew a little bit and learned about ourselves,” Coach Gordon Queener said.
On Saturday, Pauls Valley opened the day with a close 7-6 win over Madill. Rowland pitched the win with three strikeouts and two walks.
In the bottom of the first, Daylee O’Bryant hit a single to bat in one run and Raegan Close hit a double to bat in two runs.
In the second, Lily Ray hit a line drive, batted in Rowland, and scored on an error by the third baseman to put the Lady Panthers up 5-0.
Madill scored 3 in the top of the third to close the gap. Pauls Valley answered with Close stealing home, and Caldwell hitting a ground ball to bat in Crouch.
Despite scoring three more runs in the fourth, Madill was unable to catch up.
“At times, we played pretty well. We just made a couple of errors that kept them in the game,” Queener said.
Then the Lady Panthers fell to eventual tournament champions Kingfisher in a 3-0 battle. Close pitched the loss. Close and O’Bryant each had one hit.
“We minimized errors, and it kept us in the game,” Queener said. “We hit the ball. We’re just a little bit away. We keep doing that, and we’ll be in a lot of games.”
Following the weekend tournament, the Lady Panthers lost at Cache 10-0 Monday and lost 9-0 against Blanchard Tuesday.
