By: Will Jacobs
Last week, the Plainview Lady Bears softball team hosted the Scottsboro Wildcats, the Sardis Lions, and the Fyffe Red Devils. Plainview was looking to pick up three home wins before their upcoming road game stretch.
The first match-up came against Scottsboro on Tuesday. Ava Jacobs started pitching for Plainview, and she never gave up a run. Once the Lady Bears got out of the top of the first inning, their offense proved to be just as good as their defense. The Lady Bears would jump out to an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
The second, third, and fourth innings were defensive deadlocks between both teams. Neither team would score a run until the bottom of the fifth inning. After Jacobs got the Lady Bears out of the top of the inning, their offense tacked on three more runs to their lead. At the end of the fifth inning, Plainview led 6-0.
The sixth inning was when Plainview added on their final run of the game. Another shut-out inning for Jacobs gave the Lady Bears the opportunity to add on to their lead before the last inning. Plainview would score one run in the bottom of the sixth to stretch their lead to 7-0.
Jacobs would head back to the pitching circle to start the seventh inning, and she was looking to bring the game to an end. Plainview would get three easy outs to end the inning and win the game 7-0. Jacobs finished the game with seven innings pitched and nine strikeouts.
The next game for the Lady Bears was a make-up game with the Sardis Lions on Wednesday. Kenzi Traylor pitched for Plainview, and she would only give up two runs the whole game.
The Lions were the visiting team, and they were quick to score. Their first run came in the top of the first inning. Traylor would get out of the inning with only one run given up, and Plainview came into the dugout ready to gain that run back. The Lady Bears would tie the game up in the bottom of the first inning, but they were unable to score any more runs, therefore making the game tied 1-1 at the end of the first inning.
The second, third, and fourth innings were scoreless innings for the Lions, but Plainview added two more runs in the bottom of the third inning to stretch their lead to 3-1. The Lady Bears also added two more runs to their lead in the bottom of the fourth inning to extend their lead to 5-1.
Sardis would manage to score one run in the top of the fifth inning, but Plainview quickly gained that run back in the bottom half of the inning, therefore, stretching their lead to 6-2. Neither team would score again throughout the rest of the game, thus resulting in a 6-2 win for the Lady Bears. Traylor finished the game with seven innings pitched and five strikeouts.
The final game of the week for Plainview came on Thursday against the Fyffe Lady Red Devils. Ava Jacobs was granted the win in this game, and she only gave up two runs the entire game.
Fyffe was slow to get their offense going in the top of the first inning, but their defense was strong throughout the bottom half of the opening inning. Fyffe’s offense continued to struggle in the top half of the second inning. However, Plainview would get their offense going in the bottom of the second inning by scoring four runs and taking a 4-0 lead at the end of the second inning.
Fyffe would fail to score any runs in the third inning, but they would not give up any run to Plainview in the third inning either. Plainview, on the other hand, would add on to their lead in the bottom of the fourth inning by scoring two runs. This would give the Lady Bears a 6-0 lead going into the top of the fifth inning.
Another scoreless inning by the Lady Red Devils gave Plainview momentum in the bottom of the fifth inning to begin to put the game out of reach. They would score two more runs to boost their lead to 8-0. In the top of the sixth inning, Fyffe scored their only two runs of the game, but Plainview quickly gained those runs back in the bottom half of the inning. Fyffe would fail to score in the seventh, and Plainview charted another win in the books by defeating Fyffe 10-2. Jacobs finished the game with seven innings pitched and thirteen strikeouts.