OXFORD – A week ago in Albertville, the Spring Garden Lady Panthers were playing at the prime. Moving runners, scoring runs, playing solid defense and pitching well. That all led to a Class 2A North Central Softball Regional title in Albertville.
They couldn’t carry it over to the state tournament at Oxford’s Choccolocco Park on Friday morning.
Spring Garden’s season ended with an 8-1 loss to Mars Hill Bible and a 6-4 heartbreaker to Thorsby. The losses marked the end of the high school careers of Neely Welsh, Abbey Steward, Bri Boles, Madison Brown, Abbie Woods and Alyssa Danford.
“We just never could stay on top and keep the ball rolling in our favor,” Spring Garden coach Ann Welsh said. “It’s a lot of pressure, but I think all these girls have been in that kind of situation a lot over their career. They’re prepared for it, but you’re dealing with heat, the pressure of being in the losers bracket.
“We left a lot of runners on base today. We just couldn’t get back-to-back hits or somebody to step up and make a hit and move runners. We just couldn’t make it all work together today.”
The Lady Panthers never led against Mars Hill. They scored their lone run in the bottom of the fourth inning after Boles was hit by a pitch to lead off. ivermectin paste for humans She scored on a double to center by nine-hole hitter Brown with two outs.
Avery Steward followed with a double to left, but Brown was thrown out at the plate for the final out of the inning.
Mars Hill Bible scored a pair of runs in the top of the fourth, three in the fifth, and three more in the seventh for the final. Pitcher Riley Vaughn allowed just three hits with three walks and nine strikeouts.
Neely Welsh singled to left in the first for the other Lady Panther hit. Avery Steward drew a pair of walks. Boles had the other. Abbey Steward suffered the loss.
The Lady Panthers looked as if they might have shook off their loss to Mars Hill early on against Thorsby. The Lady Rebels took an early 1-0 lead, but Spring Garden pushed across three runs in the bottom half of the first inning. Avery Steward, Kayley Kirk and Neely Welsh each singled to load the bases. Abbey Steward popped to center to tie the game. Boles tripled home a pair of runs with two outs to give Spring Garden a 3-1 advantage.
Thorsby scored a run in the top of the second on a triple to left by Brooklyn Resser to make it 3-2. “ivermectin” “oral” for “mites” “cats” dosage The Lady Rebels then went out in front 4-3 with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth on a two-run single to left center by Lindsey Burnett.
Spring Garden tied the game at 4 with an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth. It remained tied at 4 until the top of the eighth, when Thorsby scored twice.
Cameron Lockhart smacked a double to right off Abbey Steward. Burnett then singled home Lockhart and advanced to third on the throw. She scored on a double to left by pitcher Makinley Turner. ivermectina como age
Turner allowed a single to right by Helena Ingram with one out in the bottom of the eighth, but she dug in to strike out Layla Ingram and got Brown to pop out to right for the final.
“I just wished we could’ve taken a little bit more control and put it to somebody pretty good,” Coach Welsh said. “We just kind of got ahead of them (Thorsby) and was satisfied with that. They did fight through it, but we just couldn’t put hits together. I think for the most part our defense did pretty good, and Abbey did a good job pitching. The hits were just not there together.”
Coach Welsh also spoke emotionally of what her seniors have meant to the program.
“This is just a good group of girls,” she said. “We’ve coached them since they were about five years old. Abbey and Neely (Coach Welsh’s daughter) have been on varsity since seventh grade. They’ve just always played together. They’ve always been on the same all-star teams. When they got older, they traveled together and played together. They’re all real close. They’ve won a lot and lost a lot together.
“Starting and ending with them, it’s where we wanted to be. They met their goals this year.”