The Alba-Golden Lady Panthers wrapped up their regular season with a 9-6 win over the visiting Big Sandy Lady Cats last Thursday. The win gave Alba-Golden a 10-2 district record and readied them for a bi-district playoff late this week.

Early in the action against Big Sandy, coach Glen Boerger stepped out to the mound and motioned for a time out. He recognized hurler Adielyn Smith for having eclipsed 400 strike-outs in her Alba-Golden career.    

The sophomore right-hander racked up 12 strike-outs on the day and came to dominate the Big Sandy lineup. Of the Lady Cats four base hits, three were ground balls. Only once did Big Sandy record a base hit off of Smith with a drive to the outfield. 

Most impressive of the young hurler’s ability is her combination of consistency, placement and power. Smith uses a quick, compact wind-up and generates significant energy with her lower body in bringing the ball to the plate. She forces hitters to make split-second decisions on balls which tease the upper strike zone and just paint the outside corner. 

The Lady Panthers allowed the visitors to jump out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the third. Two infield base hits – a slow-roller and a ball which glanced off a glove on a great fielding attempt – two errors and a solid base hit did the damage. It was uncharacteristically sloppy play in the field. 

In the bottom half, the Lady Panthers roared back. They put up six runs on six hits. Jayla Sitar, Averi Stevenson, Joecey Lewers, Smith, Alexis Wilmut and Alyssa Murdock banged out RBIs. 

The Panthers gifted Big Sandy a run in the top of the sixth with a play which saw double throwing errors. 

Alba-Golden added one run in the fourth when Sitar reached on a fielder’s choice and came around on a Smith double to center. In the fifth, Murdock singled and was chased home when Sitar drilled a single into left field. In the sixth a first-pitch RBI single off the bat of Piper Hallman gave the home side a 9-6 final.

The win required the Lady Panthers to dig themselves out of a significant hole, and they did just that. Two strikingly obvious base-running mental errors will surely be used to refocus the team before playoff action starts.

Encouragingly, Smith is throwing like a machine and shows no signs of late-season fatigue. Also of note, seven Lady Panthers recorded base hits, with Sitar, Smith, Wilmut and Murdock recording multiple base hits.

It was centerfielder Murdock who made the defensive play of the game. She used tremendous closing speed to extend and put a glove on a drive which was tailing away from her in short right-center field. After impact with the ground, the ball just escaped out the top of her mitt, but the effort was worthy of the play of the game.

The Lady Panthers open the playoffs in a 3-game series with Linden-Kildare at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall Thursday at 6:30 p.m., Friday at 6 and Saturday at 1 if needed.