By: Will Jacobs
Last Thursday and Friday, the Plainview Lady Bears’ Varsity Softball team made it to the Class 3A State Tournament. The Lady Bears came into this tournament as the North Regional Champions and were looking to bring home a State Championship trophy.
The first game for Plainview came on Thursday, May 17, against the Pleasant Valley Lady Raiders. Plainview led 1-0 at the bottom of the first inning. Pleasant Valley tie the game up at 1-1 in the second inning, but Plainview added to their lead in the third for a 2-1 score.
Pleasant Valley scored one more run in the top of the fourth inning to tie the game up at 2-2. However, in the bottom of the fourth inning, Plainview took the lead for good by scoring four runs to take a 6-2 lead. This rally came off of an RBI single from Crimson Wells, an RBI single from Kenzi Traylor, a walk from Tobi Trotter that scored one run, and an RBI single from Bailey Smart.
Plainview came away with a 6-2 victory over the Lady Raiders. Kenzi Traylor was credited the win and she finished the game with four and one-third innings pitched with three strike-outs. Ava Jacobs finished the game with two and two-thirds innings pitched with two strike-outs.
Bailey Smart finished the game going 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Kenzi Traylor finished 2-for-4 with one RBI. Crimson Wells and Jacey Crowell both finished the game going 1-for-2 from the plate.
The next game for Plainview came later on Thursday night against the Prattville Christian Academy Lady Panthers.
Prattville took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but Plainview answered back with two. Prattville reclaimed the lead in the top of the second inning off of a two-run homerun. Plainview again captured a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the second inning.
Prattville took the lead back in the top of the third inning when they scored three runs to take a 6-4 lead. Plainview would rally to get twelve hits in the game, but they were unsuccessful in reclaiming the lead throughout the rest of the game and Prattville held on to win 6-4.
Kenzi Traylor led Plainview at the plate by going 4-for-4. Ava Jacobs and Krimson Kidd both followed by going 2-for-4, while Jacey Crowell went 2-for-3 from the plate. Kenzi Traylor finished the game with two and one-third innings pitched, and Ava Jacobs finished the game with four and two-thirds innings pitched and three strikeouts.
This loss put Plainview in the loser’s bracket.
Their next game came on Friday, May 18, against the Lauderdale County Lady Tigers. Plainview took an early 3-0 lead in the first inning, but Lauderdale County answered back with two runs in the bottom of the inning.
After a scoreless second inning for both teams, Plainview added one run to their lead in the top of the third inning and added three more runs the fourth inning to make the score 7-2.
Neither team scoree again until the top of the sixth inning when Plainview again added three more runs to bring their lead to 10-2, but allowed Lauderdale County to score six runs in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to just 10-8.
Plainview failed to score in the top of the seventh inning, and Lauderdale County had a chance to take the lead and put Plainview out of the tournament. However, the Lady Tigers were unsuccessful in their attempts at the plate and failed to score any runs. Plainview held on to defeat the Lady Tigers 10-8.
Tobi Trotter led the Lady Bears at the plate by going 4-for-5. Ava Jacobs followed by going 3-for-4 with three RBIs. Bailey Smart went 3-for-5 from the plate with three RBIs and Crimson Wells went 2-for-3 from the plate with one RBI. Ava Jacobs was credited with the win, and she finished the game with seven innings pitched and five strikeouts.
The next game for Plainview came on Friday afternoon where they faced off against the Locust Fork Lady Hornets. Both teams failed to score until the bottom of the third inning when Plainview took a 3-0 lead. The Bears added twelve more runs in the fourth inning to take it to a 15-0 lead. The Lady Hornets failed to score in the top of the fifth inning, and due to the mercy rule, Plainview defeated Locust Fork 15-0 in four innings.
Bailey Smart led the Bears at the plate by going 2-for-2 with five RBIs. Kenzi Traylor and Crimson Wells followed by both going 2-for-3 from the plate and Wells had two RBIs. Elaine Puckett went 1-for-1 with two RBIs. Ava Jacobs was credited with the win and finished the game with four innings pitched and five strikeouts and gave up only one hit.
Plainview’s final game came Friday afternoon against the Geneva Lady Panthers.
Geneva took a 3-0 lead top of the first inning. Plainview failed to score until the second inning, but brought the score to 3-1.
Neither team scored until the fourth inning when Geneva put three more runs on the board, but Plainview never gave up. They scored seven runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 8-6 lead over the Lady Panthers.
Geneva reclaimed the lead in the top of the fifth inning by scoring six runs, however, Plainview added one run in the bottom of the inning cutting the lead to 12-9.
After preventing Geneva from scoring in the top of the seventh inning, Plainview came into the dugout one last time to try to reclaim the lead, but were unsuccessful in their efforts.
Krimson Kidd led the Lady Bears at the plate by going 3-for-4. Ava Jacobs and Kenzi Traylor both went 2-for-4 from the plate with Traylor having two RBIs and Jacobs having one RBI. Ava Jacobs finished the game with seven innings pitched and one strikeout.
The Lady Bears made program history last season by finishing fifth in the state. This year’s team, however, went even farther and finished third in the state. The Lady Bears finished the 2018 season with a 42-11 record and an Area Championship trophy and a North Regional Championship trophy.