By Kyle Roberts
ALEXANDRIA, La. — A five-run bottom of the seventh inning propelled the Alexandria Senior High Lady Trojans (10-3, 1-0 District 2-5A) over the Ruston High Lady Bearcats (7-5, 0-1 District 2-5A) by a final score of 15-14 in the teams’ district-opening contest.
After getting up 4-0 in the top of the first, the ‘Cats did not surrender the lead until the final run in the bottom of the seventh.
“I think we got fired up after a big first inning and then maybe got complacent,” Ruston High head coach Lauren Garvie said. “ASH is not a team to do that with; they hit the ball too much. I think our pitchers did their job and got the ground balls we needed, but unfortunately we made too many errors to pull the game through.”
Freshman Aubrey Stoehr led off with a home run over the left field wall to put Ruston up 1-0 in the top of the first. After getting a single, senior Rilee Atwood scored on a bunt by senior Abby Holton and an error by ASH’s pitcher. Senior Morgan Foster tripled on the next at-bat to score Holton and put the Lady Bearcats up 3-0, who scored two batters later off of an error by the catcher for the 4-0 lead.
After a scoreless bottom of the first and a full second inning, Ruston added two more runs in the top of the third — first by a double by Foster that scored Holton from first base, who then would score on a passed ball by the catcher for a 6-0 lead.
ASH would answer with five runs in the bottom of the third, before Ruston added four more in the top of the fourth. Stoehr would score first on a Holton pop-fly to right to put the Lady Bearcats up 7-5. Both Atwood and Holton would score on the next at-bat by Foster, who bunted and reached third on an error by the ASH pitcher. Foster then scored on a wild pitch in the final at-bat of the inning, giving Ruston a 10-5 lead going into the bottom of the fourth.
ASH added three more runs in the fourth and then one more in the bottom of the fifth to cut the Lady Bearcat lead to 10-9. Atwood would give Ruston another RBI single in the top of the sixth inning to center field, scoring Stoehr who tripled in the previous at-bat for an 11-9 lead.
After another one-run inning by ASH, Ruston got three one-out runs in the top of the seventh inning. Freshman Annaliese Doss would record a sacrifice bunt first to score senior Jaiden Feeheley, with Stoehr following afterward with a line-drive double to score junior Sage Tolar from second base. Finally, Atwood doubled to right field, scoring Stoehr and putting Ruston up 14-10 heading into the bottom of the seventh, where ASH scored the five runs to get the win.
Both Stoehr and Atwood finished with three hits and two RBI’s apiece, while Foster registered two hits and two RBI’s. Atwood got the start in the circle and struck out two batters in 4.0 innings pitched.
Ruston will return to action Thursday night at home against Pineville. First pitch is set for 5 p.m.
