LA Heat splits with DeQuincy
By Jamie Anfenson-Comeau
LA Heat finished up their summer season Monday night with a doubleheader split against DeQuincy, with the junior varsity team taking a 6-0 loss before the varsity Heat team came in to win 1-0.
Today’s scheduled game at Avoyelles was cancelled, making this the last game of the summer season for the St. Edmund-based softball team.
In the five-inning opener, the Lady Tigers scored two runs in the top of the first inning, as Tayler Richard reached on an error, advanced on a wild pitch and a stolen base, and later scored.
Kaci Mueller drew a walk, stole second, and scored on Bethanie Patin’s base hit.
Patin doubled to drive in another run in the top of the third after Kelly Nortman singled and advanced on a sacrifice grounder.
In the top of the fourth, the Lady Tigers increased their lead to 5-0 when Kelsey Cooley reached on an error and scored on Richard’s double.
Nortman’s base hit then scored Richard for the second run of the inning.
DeQuincy capped off scoring with an insurance run in the top of the fifth, as Kaitlyn Foster doubled and later scored on Emily Nixon’s groundout to the shortstop.
Foster pitched the win for the Lady Tigers, giving up only one hit while striking out nine Heat batters.
Brooke Fontenot took the loss for the Heat team, giving up eight hits and one walk while striking out four batters.
In the seven-inning varsity nightcap, the sole run of the game came in the bottom of the second inning, when, after striking out the first two Heat batters, DeQuincy pitcher Rayleigh Templet walked Simone Guillory and Caroline Aguillard.
Taylor Richard singled to load the bases; Adrienne Fontenot then drew a walk to score Guillory.
Leah Andrus then hit a fly ball out to right field, ending the inning.
DeQuincy threatened to tie in the top of the third with a runner on third and two outs, but Andrus struck out the next batter to end the threat.
Andrus pitched the shutout, giving up only two hits and two walks while striking out 11 batters.
Templet took the loss for DeQuincy, giving up two hits and five walks while striking out eight batters.
With the end of the summer season, LA Heat Coach Louise Johnson said she feels confident in the progress both the junior varsity and the varsity teams have made.
“I think that our young players coming in really got a taste of what high school ball’s going to be like in the spring next year,” Johnson said, adding, “Everybody got to see some really good pitching, in some teams where we really had to play up; teams that are going to be playing at higher classification schools. So it was a very good experience for us, a very good month for us.”
Johnson said she expects the progress she’s seen to carry over to next spring’s Lady Jay season.
“I think that once we start getting our practice in, and our workouts in, and we start getting our repetitions in on our fundamentals, and we put this experience on top of that, I feel really good about what we have an opportunity to do next year.”