OVER IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE
The Panther softball team was hoping for a long day in Olivia as it started postseason play in the Section 3A Softball Tournament. That would’ve required a win in the early game against second-seeded BOLD.
As it turns out, it was the shortest day of the spring, as the Panthers’ season came to an end with a 10-0 loss in a game that took less than one hour to complete.
“The biggest thing is, we dug a hole right out of the gate,” TMB coach Karl Campbell said. “I knew we were going to have to play pretty spotless defense to have a chance and we didn’t do that.”
TMB had trouble generating much offense against BOLD starter Kaitlynn Flann after the first inning.
The Panthers threatened early though. Melaina Ankrum singled with one out and scampered to third as Allie Dolan reached on the BOLD miscue — its only error of the game. However, Flann was undaunted and struck out the next two batters to get out of the jam.
“We got two runners on, second and third with one out, and we couldn’t take advantage of that,” said Campbell. “We just didn’t string anything together after that.
The inning was the closest TMB (11-10) came to scoring. BOLD had no such problem.
After Gretchen Lanoue retired the first batter she faced, and error and three quick singles put BOLD on the board. A fielders’ choice, a walk and a triple put the Warriors up 5-0 just like that.
“I knew they were going to put the ball in play,” Campbell said. “We made mistakes early, and if you do that against a good team, you’re going to pay. It makes it so our pitcher has to throw more pitches, they get more opportunities.”
BOLD added two more runs on just one hit in the third and went ahead 10-0 with three more in the bottom of the fourth.
The Panthers, meanwhile, got nothing going against Flann. TMB had just two baserunners in the second through fifth innings, and neither passed first base.
“I don’t want to make any excuses, but the (strike) zone was extremely tight out of the gate,” Campbell said. “It expanded as the game went on; as we got on him a little bit, (the umpire) got to a zone that we expected in a playoff game.”
That said, BOLD showed why it earned the second seed in the South division, with solid pitching and timely hitting to go along with pretty strong defense when needed.”
Alexis Brey had the Panthers’ other hit — a single in the fourth.
TMB 000 00 — 0 2 2 BOLD 520 3x — 10 9 1 Lanoue (L) and Freeburg.
• The Panthers said good-bye to six seniors, and Campbell shared his thoughts about each after the disappointing season-ending loss: AnnaRae Bowman ( manager): I’m going to miss her as much as anybody. She’s been the one that has taken care of our iScore stuff and makes sure all our stats are in order. It got to the point where everything was pretty spot-on with our stats.”
Cheyenne Hoffman: “She had a number of starts in the outfield for us this year; never complained about not being able to hit much — just a super teammate for the girls.”
Rosa Vang: “She was kind of our spark plug out in left field. Nobody on this team has worked as hard as Rosa has to get in our lineup and stay in our lineup. Super proud of her efforts.”
Piper Freeburg: “Piper has been a three- or four-year starter at catcher for us, played pretty much every inning for us, and that’s hardest position on the field physically, and you’ve got to be mentally engaged there as well.”
Aliyah Loftness: “She was a team captain this year, has played a lot of ball for us as well in the infield.”
Avery Torgeson: “She has basically been a utility player for us — she’s played right, she’s played second, she’s played first base. All five of them, softball is their main sport … best of luck to our seniors. That’s the nature of high school sports — you’re always having girls move on and are always looking forward to who you have coming in to replace them.”
