ALL THEY COULD HANDLE
Waco Midway 5, Lampasas 2
LHS pressures No. 5 Lady Panthers until final out
By JEREMY HEATH Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY RICHARD AKRIDGE LHS freshman catcher Marisa Bogart, who went 2 for 4 at the plate, waits for a popup in the sixth inning of the Lady Badgers' 5-2 loss against Waco Midway on Tuesday. Bogart also lined out to left field on the night and remains the Lady Badgers' hottest hitter. She had 10 extra-base hits in four games at the Ennis Tournament last weekend.

It was all Chris Gaffney "could hope for."

The Lampasas High School head softball coach watched his Lady Badgers battle the fifth-ranked Waco Midway Lady Panthers to the final out of their 5-2 loss on Tuesday night.

The Lady Badgers (6-4) had the bases loaded and No. 5 hitter Taylor Holloman at the plate with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning when Midway catcher Holly Gentch whipped a perfect throw to third baseman Lauren Griffith to nip LHS freshman Marisa Bogart, who was on third after her second hit of the night.

"When you're playing one of the top teams in the state, and you have the winning run at the plate, that's all you can hope for," Gaffney said. "You're either going to come through or you're not. But we had opportunities to take down a giant tonight."

LHS rightfielder Shelby Wilson snags a flyball to end the top of the sixth inning in the Lady Badgers' 5-2 loss to fifth-ranked Waco Midway on Tuesday night.

Those opportunities were erased by baserunning mistakes. LHS had two runners thrown out at the plate and had another fail to advance to third while the runner in front of her was caught in a rundown between third and home plate.

Midway ace Lizzy Kelly cruised through the first three innings, allowing just a single to Bogart in the first, but the Lady Badgers started to catch up with her rise ball-heavy arsenal in the fourth. Vonzella Underwood and Stacey Dickens singled in the frame, with Dickens' hit plating Shelby Wilson to cut the Midway lead to 2-1.

The Lady Panthers got the run back to take a 3-1 lead in the top of the fifth, playing station-to-station ball with three singles.

The Lady Panthers would tack on two more runs in the fifth, touching up a then-tiring Kirby Crow with three more hits. Crow, who was asked by Gaffney all night to challenge the Midway hitters, came through with a gutty performance, scattering 11 hits and three earned runs over seven innings.

"Kirby was dealing tonight," Gaffney said. "I called a lot more fastballs than I usually do when she's on the mound. We usually rely on her junk to keep hitters offbalance, but tonight I asked her to keep the ball and keep throwing fastballs. She did a great job."

The Lady Badgers trailed 5-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh.

Crow started the rally with a oneout single, and Bogart followed her with her second base hit of the night. Freshman Shelly Holcomb, who replaced senior Taryn Brown at second base after Brown got her hand stepped on while sliding into home plate, beat out an infield single to load the bases with one out.

Third baseman Vonzella Underwood got down in the count 0-2 before working a 12-pitch walk to plate Crow and cut the lead to 5- 2.

Kelly got Shelby Wilson swinging before Gentch's perfect throw got Bogart to end it.

"We competed, and we had opportunities to win," the coach said.