After their first two first-round exits in school history the past two years, the Harlan County Lady Bears are happy to be back in the 13th Region Tournament.
Harlan County advanced to a 52nd District championship showdown against Harlan by pulling away late for an 11-4 win over Bell County in the opening game of the tournament on Monday at HCHS.
“It’s hard to step back and remember when you take over a team that had only three returning players, but they actually look like a team here at the end. It’s exciting to see their growth,” Harlan County coach Shelby Burton said. “Hopefully, we’re not done.”
Freshman Alexis Adams set a school record for strikeouts in one season when she reached the 202 mark to close the second inning, but she struggled with her command for much of the game and finished with a 13-strikeout, seven-walk day while giving up four runs on only three hits.
“That’s what you get when you have a freshman pitcher. It was her first district tournament,” Burton said. “I felt Bell’s pitcher pitched a great game. She was very consistent.”
Madison Blair had a triple and single and Rylie Maggard added a triple to lead the 14-18 Lady Bears. Lindsey Skidmore singled twice and drove in three runs. Lesleigh Brown also singled twice. Brittleigh Estep added a double. Jenna WIlson and Halanah Shepherd contributed one single each.
Jayda Boateng, Addyson Scott and Alexus Lawson each had singles for the 10-19 Lady Cats.
Scott pitched a complete game, giving up 11 runs on 10 hits with six strikeouts and five walks.
Blair tripled to open the game and scored the first run when Wilson reached on an error.
Maggard led off the second inning with a triple and scored on Blair’s hit. Wilson followed with a two-run single for a 4-0 lead.
Brown singled in the fourth inning and scored on Skidmore’s hit to make it 5-0.
Bell scored three runs in the fifth inning with the help of two walks, a hit batsman and an error. One run scored on an error, one on a wild pitch and the third on Lawson’s sacrifice fly. Adams worked out of trouble with a strikeout.
“I told the girls when scored those three runs that it was a new ballgame, but we just didn’t hit the ball consistently,” Bell County coach David Teague said. “We talked about that the last few days in practice that we had to put the ball in play. Give their pitcher credit though. We wanted to be disciplined at the plate, and we got some walks, but we couldn’t get that hit when we needed it.”
Skidmore had a clutch two-out, two-run single in the fifth inning. Shepherd, Estep and Brown each had RBI hits in the sixth inning.
Scott had a bunt hit for Bell in the seventh inning and scored on Lawson’s two-out hit.
Teague expected a rebuilding season and hopes his young squad, which features only two seniors, gained some valuable experience.
“We knew we’d have a different look this year after graduating nine or 10 seniors the past two years,” he said. “We had several girls in new spots, new roles and new positions this year. I think we got a lot of experience moving forward.”
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Bell County 000 030 1 — 4. 3. 4
Harlan County 130 134 x — 11. 10. 2
Scott and Lawson; Adams and Burton. WP — Adams (14-9). LP — Scott.