Missed opportunities cost Ardmore in state tourney

Published 4:55 pm Thursday, May 17, 2018

Ardmore had plenty of opportunities to grab a win over Alexandria Wednesday night in the Class 5A softball state tournament and keep its season alive. But the big hit the Tigers needed remained just out of reach in a 7-6 loss.

Ardmore left the bases loaded in both the sixth and seventh innings as the same team they defeated in the championship game of the North Regional tournament last week put them out at state.

“We just didn’t have enough energy today,” Ardmore coach Stephen Baugh said. “We had our opportunities, but we just didn’t finish the job.”

Ardmore won its first game of the tournament 13-3 over Mortimer Jordan Wednesday morning before falling into the loser’s bracket with a 2-0 loss to Rehobeth. That put the Tigers into an elimination game against Alexandria Wednesday night.

It started off well for Ardmore, as the Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the third inning. L.B. Smith drove in the first run with a single before Bo Riley drove in the second with a groundout. Sydney Hall then ripped a double down the third base line to give the Tigers a three-run lead.

But it didn’t last long, as Alexandria came right back in the bottom of the third inning with three runs of their own. A two-out two-run double by Millie Burt was the big hit of the inning and tied the score.

Alexandria then took control with four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, with the big blow being a two-run double from Emmah Rolfe.

Ardmore looked to get right back in the game in the top of the sixth, as the Tigers loaded the bases with two outs. Smith hit a hard line drive that looked destined to be a hit, but it was directly at the Alexandria second baseman, who caught it for the third out.

With three outs left in its season, Ardmore came out strong in the top of the seventh inning. The Tigers loaded the bases with no outs before Reagan McNeill’s drove in a run with a single. Brooklyn Calder followed that up with a RBI groundout and Ardmore had cut the lead to 7-5 with the tying run standing on second base.

A walk by Olivia Stafford loaded the bases again and Madison Lewis followed that up with another single that drove in a run to make it 7-6. Ardmore’s top hitter Karla Hice was next to bat, but she was controversially called out on strikes by the umpire on a ball that looked to be shoulder height.

Baugh put up a strong argument with the home plate umpire, but there was no changing his mind. Smith followed up with a deep fly ball that was caught a few steps short of the wall by the right fielder and just like that, Ardmore’s season was over.

While Baugh was upset with the umpire’s strike-three call against Hice, he refused to blame the loss on that one decision.

“At the end of the day, we shouldn’t be in the position for an umpire’s call to cost us the game,” he said. “That’s on us. We’ve just got to go to work and get better next year.”

Stafford and Smith both finished the game with three hits while Addison Hurst, Lewis and Hall each had two hits.

Rehobeth 2, Ardmore 0

Ardmore had no answer to the Rehobeth pitching duo of Stephanie Schoonover and Lauren Rase, as the Tigers were held to just two hits in a shutout loss.

Baugh said his biggest concern coming into the state tournament was facing the quality pitching teams like Rehobeth would offer. His fears turned out to be accurate.

“Although we had a tough schedule, I was scared that we hadn’t faced really, really good pitching,” Baugh said. “And that hurt us against Rehobeth big time. We’ve played them two years in a row and haven’t scored any runs on them.”

Ardmore’s best chance of scoring came in the first inning, as Stafford led off the inning with a walk and reached second on a sacrifice bunt. Hice then launched a deep fly ball to center field that looked like it would be a home run, but the Rehobeth center fielder made a running, leaping catch as she crashed through the temporary fence set up in the outfield.

Stafford tagged up and raced all the way around to score, but the umpires made her return to third base after ruling the play dead once the center fielder crashed through the fence. Stafford was then tagged out at home plate as she tried to score on a wild pitch, which ended the inning.

Ardmore’s only two hits of the game came in the second inning, when Hurst and Riley had back-to-back singles, but the Tigers couldn’t push a run across after loaded the bases with one out.

Ardmore had no scoring opportunities the remainder of the game.

Rehobeth’s two runs came in the top of the fourth inning when Rhaelynn Smith hit a two-run single.

Ardmore finished its season with a 38-10 record. It was the second consecutive season the Tigers reached the state tournament, and with Hurst being the only senior, the expectations are high for a third straight trip.

“I told the players (after the Alexandria loss) that the expectations are for us to be back here again next year, and let’s try to finish it,” Baugh said. “I don’t know if there’s any program that works harder than us, but if we can, we’re certainly going to try to in order to be back her next year and hopefully finish the job.”