Center High School, Thursday, April 26, 2018 –
The Center Lady Roughriders Varsity Softball Team trailed only 1-0 until the visiting Bullard Lady Panthers blew Game 1, of a bi-district playoff, wide open with six runs in the top of the fifth inning.
Center, the fourth place representative of District 16 Class 4A, now trails 1 game to zero and will travel to Bullard High School for Game 2, Friday April 27, 2018, at 6 p.m. Game 3 will follow at the same location if necessary to decide the best of three game series. Bullard, 21-4, is the first place representative of District 15 4A.
Bullard’s Aspyn Grossman scored in the first inning to put the Lady Panthers up 1-0 early. The Lady Panthers did not let the Lady ‘Riders reach the base paths until Jazz Cooks legged out an infield hit in the bottom of the third inning.
The Panthers’ 1-0 lead held up until they exploded for six more runs in the top of the fifth inning.
KB Bolton led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a single to leftfield but Center could not rally and ended the inning by getting retired on a double play for the last two outs.
Bullard went into the sixth inning with a 7-0 lead and scored three more runs when they started the inning by loading the bases with two hit batters and a walk. A sacrifice fly and a Jolee Dixon double gave them a 10-0 advantage by the end of the frame.
Junior Pitcher Aspyn Grossman took the win for Bullard and only gave up two hits to the Lady ‘Riders. She struck out three batters and did not allow a walk.
Centers’ pitcher Jazz Cooks struck out two Panther batters, giving up 11 hits and walked 7 batters.
Center was retired 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the sixth inning and Bullard took the win by a mercy-rule decision.
