HERMLEIGH – The Brownwood Lady Lions couldn’t solve Vernon pitcher Shay Williams, who hurled a one-hit shutout with 21 strikeouts in a 3-0 Region I-4A bi-district softball decision Friday afternoon.
The Lady Lions (8-14-1), the third seed out of District 6-4A, received a two-out bloop single over second base from Dakota Simpson in the top of the third inning, then Chesney Covey reached on a dropped third strike, but both base runners were stranded. Brownwood’s only other base runner was Auzzlyn Benedict, who drew a walk with one out in the top of the seventh inning and later stole a base.
The only Lady Lion who was not retired via strikeout was Cecilia Rodriguez, who grounded out to first base for the final out of the fourth inning.
“We ran into a really good pitcher,” said Lady Lions head coach Jessica Lynn. “She controlled the game, kept us off balance, I thought she did a good job. Our girls gave it their best, we just came up on the short end this time.”
Brownwood pitcher Annie-Klein Allgood surrendered just four hits to District 5-4A runner-up Vernon (18-7-1), which scored once in the second inning and added a pair of insurance runs in the fifth. Allgood also walked two batters and struck out one.
“She did a great job, she got a lot of soft contact and we made some good plays behind her,” Lynn said of Allgood. “It looked like her stuff was moving good because of the contact that she was getting, they weren’t really getting really solid, they had a couple of good hits but that’s going to happen. Overall I thought she did a great job and the defense did a pretty solid job behind her. We made a couple of mistakes that cost us a couple of runs, but we worked hard.”
Vernon’s second inning featured a lead-off single by Williams, who then beat out a throw to second base during Jalia McBride’s at-bat before stealing third base ahead of an RBI ground out by Brook Myers.
The fifth inning for Vernon began with a single from Myers, who was then sacrificed to second base. Addison Spencer later reached on an error ahead of consecutive RBI singles from Jasmine Bustamante and Emily Boyd, which wrapped up the scoring.
Friday marked the final high school games for Lady Lion seniors Covey, Benedict and Jillian Lambert.
“Chesney did a great job at our lead-off position and did a great job in the outfield and was a leader with two freshman around her in the outfield,” Lynn said. “Auzzlyn did a great job behind the plate and was a leader in the infield and did a great job offensively as well. Jillian came out and it was the first year for her to make the whole season because she does so much stuff in the spring, so it was a real pleasure to have her out there as well.”
