By Kyle Roberts
Ruston High (8-8, 0-2 District 2-5A) grabbed a run-rule win Friday before falling in a pair of Saturday games this past weekend as the Lady Bearcats are nearing the midway point of the 2025 season.
“I think our losses were products of being tired right now,” Ruston High head coach Lauren Garvie said. “We’re fighting hard in the circle, but we are producing at the plate — I think that’s one thing that you can always say about this team is that no matter what, they are going to produce at the plate. We’re worn out right now, and that’s partly on me. We’ve played a lot of games in a very few amount of weeks. We’re going into a couple of days off this week going in Spring Break. We were going to play in a tournament this weekend, but I’ve decided to give our bodies a break.”
The Lady Bearcats first best the Weston Lady Wolves at home, getting an 18-1 victory after just three innings played.
Ruston plated four runs in the bottom of the first, with senior Morgan Foster tripling into right field to score freshman Aubrey Stoehr and senior Abby Holton for a 2-0 lead. Sophomore Aubree Lohman doubled two batters later to score both Foster and junior Sage Tolar from third and first, respectively, putting Ruston up 4-0.
After Weston scored its only run of the game in the top of the second, the Lady Bearcats cracked open a nine-run bottom of the second to take a 10-1 lead. Stoehr opened the scoring with a two run homer to left field, scoring herself and freshman Za’Meriah Jones. After senior Rilee Atwood took a four-pitch walk, Holton would get another single to score Atwood for a 7-1 lead. Foster followed with a single in the next at-bat to center field to score Holton and add another run.
Both Foster and Tolar would score on a scored passed ball two at-bats later to give Ruston a 10-1 lead. Lady Bearcat batters would go double, triple, double to score the final three runs of the inning, with Bowers going first with a line drive double to score Lohman, followed by freshman Annaliese Doss getting her triple into left field, scoring freshman Skylar Bowers, and finally Stoehr doubling to score Doss for a 13-1 lead.
Tolar would start the scoring for Ruston in the bottom of the third, hitting a double into left field and scoring Foster. Lohman followed with a ground ball to short stop that resulted in Tolar scoring. Finally, Stoehr doubled in the bottom of the third inning to score Lohman, Jones and junior Kyndal Fobbs for the 18-1 win.
Bowers got the start on the mound and struck out four batters. Stoehr finished with three hits and six RBIs, while Foster added three RBIs on the day.
On Saturday, Ruston would fall first to Quitman 10-0, getting behind after surrendering five runs in the bottom of the first inning. The Wolverines would add a run in both the bottom of the second and the third innings and finally got the last three runs in the bottom of the sixth to run-rule the Lady Bearcats.
Ruston would finish with four errors and get just two hits, a double by Holton and a single by Tolar.
The Lady Bearcats would then fall to Benton after giving up four runs to the Lady Tigers in both the top of the fifth and sixth innings. After falling behind 2-0 by the middle of the third inning, Stoehr hit a left field home run to tie the game 2-2 and score Jones.
After the aforementioned runs scored by Benton, Stoehr added her second home run of the game in a solo shot to center field to put Ruston down 10-3 in the bottom of the sixth. It would not be enough as the Lady Tigers would get the win.
Overall, Garvie is pleased with how her team is playing overall and added some praise for a few individual players.
“Stoehr has been hot — she’s been a phenomenal lead off for us as a freshman,” Garvie said. “That can be kind of nerve wracking for a coach to come up to you and say, hey, you’re going to be our lead off and your one goal in life is to always get on base. She’s taken on that role really well. She’s done a really good job and she’s tough at the plate. She’s someone that a lot of people are going to think they can get two strikes on her, and then she’ll come back and hit a home run off two strikes. So she’s a tough out and she does really well. But you know, there’s some other girls that have impressed me this season — senior Jaiden Feeheley is not this big power hitter, but her on base percentage has been so nice.
“I keep telling them all to work for first base — get on first no matter what you do. Even if it’s a walk that wasn’t free — you earned that and you had a quality at bat and were disciplined enough to get on base. Lohman, too — she came up there and she hit the ball well this weekend. So I’m proud of of how we are hitting. We’ve just got to be able to back that up all the way around.”
Ruston returns to action Tuesday for a district match-up with Neville and then Ouachita Thursday.
“I think these are two games we can win,” Garvie said. “Our girls are too tough at the plate and too solid defensively. I’m excited to see how we play this week.”
