Lady Bears season ends in New London

The Lady Bears were ousted early from Regional play when they were beat 1-11 at New London on July 2. A couple big innings from the Tigers all but sealed the Lady Bears’ fate after playing a close game through 2 ½ innings.

    English Valleys let up one run in the bottom of the first but didn’t allow New London to score until the third, where they went off for five runs and added on four more in the fourth. The Lady Bears had some chances to crack the zero on the board in response but came up short in doing so. Kami Tippie was walked to lead off the second inning and then Elle Ayers reached base with a single. Maddy Shaw laid down a bunt to advance both runners and a walk to Sydney Olson loaded the bases. A couple strikeouts ended the threat for EV to put up some runs.

    “We did what we wanted to early on and kept it close, trying to make them nervous,” Lady Bears coach Steve Hester said. “It was good to see the girls never gave up and got after it through that last inning.”

    EV was shut down until the fifth inning in which Hannah Marsh hit a ball that left the yard for a solo home run, the lone run for the Lady Bears in the game. Karyssa Westfall followed that up with a single to keep the inning going but was caught attempting to steal second base.

    New London finished out the game by scoring one more run in the bottom of the fifth to end it at 1-11.

    Lady Bear leaders: Karyssa Westfall/Audrey Grove/Elle Ayers/Hannah Marsh – 1 hit, Hannah Marsh – 1 run, Hannah Marsh – 1 HR, Hannah Marsh – 1 RBI, Hannah Marsh – 1 K

    “Overall this season was a positive step in the right direction,” Hester said. “I think the season went well for our seniors and they had fun. They’ll be hard to replace going forward but they showed some good leadership for the younger girls.”