Sports
Lady Tigers fall to Eagles
Monday, 05 March 2012 by Chuck Kelly
Georgetown denied Belton's quest for its first softball victory of the season Tuesday night. The Lady Eagles pinned a 9-0 shutout on the Lady Tigers and flew back down south. It was another hard loss, number four, for fifth-year head coach Matt Blackburn's very young team.
The group has many players with zero varsity experience and are prone to mental mistakes at times while striving to fit together as a team ...a successful team.
The more mature Georgetown girls outhit Belton 10-5 in the game.
Alex Wilson started in the circle for the Lady Tigers and the Lady Eagles scored two runs off two singles and an error in the first inning.
Kirsten Whiteside drew a walk, Shelby Hitt was out on a sacrifice hit, Wilson, the team's leading batter with a .667 average, was out number two on an infield shot, and Becca Alcozer struck out.
Meredith Langford relieved Wilson in the second but a leadoff double, a base on balls and a single increased the visitors lead to 4-0.
Lauren Ramsey and Alyson Bishoff slammed a pair of singles but three teammates struck out. (Belton had 14 K's for the evening)
In the top of the third, the Lady Eagles were snuffed out 1-2-3 while Wilson got Belton's third hit of the game, a single, in the midst of thre outs.
After three innings, Georgetown 4, Belton zero.
The visitors picked up one single as Langford notched the Tiger pitching tandem's only two strikeouts of the evening and the third out was a drive to shortstop.
In Belton's fourth, two batters struck out and the third flew out to second. Six batters went to the plate for Georgetown in the fifth inning. They picked up three runs off three hits to advance their lead to 7-0.
Whiteside ripped a two-out single in the bottom of the inning but Hitt was put out for the third on a bunt attempt.
In the top of the sixth, three out of four Lady Eagles were out while one reached first on an error.
Wilson led off with her second single of the game but was touched out on the basepath, Skylar Stewart got on base by a fielder's choice and an error and two strikeouts retired the Lady Tigers.
Georgetown tacked on two more runs in the final inning and Belton finished the game with the final three batters striking out.
Belton fell to 0-4 for the early season as Georgetown took home a 9-0 win.
It's back to the practice field for Blackburn and his two assistant coaches Brad Marek and Brenda Gomez as they work to instill confidence and focus on winning to the young players.
It's still early and on-the-job training time for the ladies. They face a tough lineup this week in the three-day Midway tournament before taking on Bryan in the first district contest Feb. 28 at Lady Tiger Field.
Last weekend's softball tournament in Bryan was not a good experience for the young Belton Lady Tigers. Coach Matt Blackburn's ladies let the first game slip away at the end.
The opener Thursday saw Belton edged 7-6 by Round Rock in a come-from-behind finish in the fourth inning of a time-limit game.
The Lady Tigers struck early in the first inning. Kirsten Whiteside drew a base-on-balls. Shelby Hitt put a shot thru shortstop to get on base. Alex Wilson, the pitcher, sacrificed out to score Whiteside. Alyson Bishoff reached base on a fielder's choice before outs from the next two batters.
Round Rock responded in the bottom of the inning with a two-out homer.
Belton was held to a single by Lauren Ramsey in the second but she was thrown out by the catcher on the basepath.
Round Rock scored again twice to go ahead 3-1.
Whiteside and Wilson walked, Whiteside scored but Wilson was tossed out on a fielder's choice. Hitt flew out to short center field in the third. Dunahoo was hit by a pitch and Billie Farr took base on a fielder's choice. With two outs and the bases loaded, Becca Alcozer smashed a long ball over the center field fence to put the Lady Tigers up 6-3.
Things looked good as Round Rock was sat down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning.
In the final inning of the time limit showdown, Belton got Whiteside and Hitt on by walks but a strikeout left them stranded.
Then, the unbelievable happened --- Round Rock rallied with four runs off five hits and the game was over!
Belton was held to three hits. Wilson allowed eight hits (five earned runs) , struck out two and walked only one while facing 22 batters.
On Friday, the Lady Tigers had only four hits, two of them by Shelby Hitt, and committed three errors as they fell to San Antonio Johnson 3-0. The other two hits came from the bats of Meredith Langford in the first inning and Kaitlyn Dunahoo in the fourth.
Wilson took the circle for the second day of the tournament and gave up two hits for two runs (one unearned) in two innings.
Langford relieved for the last three innings, allowing one earned run off three hits.
Belton was denied a tournament win when rain caused cancellation of the scheduled Saturday games.
