Snowflake’s softball team played five games in two days at the 24-team Gracie Haught Tournament held in Payson over the weekend, going 1-4 in those contests. The Lobos split two games played on Thursday taking a 7-11 loss to Mingus Union to open the tournament at noon, then bouncing back with a 14-12 win over Dobson later Thursday afternoon.
Friday wasn’t the best day for the Lady Lobos. They were busy with three games played but came up short in each of those three outings, although two of the contests were very close. In the morning they fell to Safford in a close 1-3 outcome. Later in the afternoon they came up short against Westwood falling to the Warriors 6-10. Their final game of the tournament was later in the afternoon and ended up being a 6-7 loss to Sunnyslope.
In the Mingus contest Kaylee Thomas led the way at the plate with three hits. Rylee Hensley had two hits. Jordyn Powers, Hallie McCray, Taryn Flake and Kennedee Hensley had one hit. McCray and Hensley each had home runs. Powers’ hit was a triple.
Sydney Bauer and Thomas combined to work six innings where they allowed 11 runs on eight hits with five strikeouts and walked four.
The Lobos started quickly in their win over Dobson by taking a 10-0 lead into the fifth. Dobson mounted a challenge with five in the fifth but the Lobos answered with four more, which they would need to hold off the Mustangs who scored seven runs in the sixth.
Rylee Hensley led the team in hitting going 4 for 4 with two home run blasts.
Bauer got the win facing 36 batters. She gave up 12 runs on nine hits with three strikeouts and walked seven.
In their two run loss to Safford on Friday morning the Lobos were shut out until the fourth inning where they scored their lone run. Only three hits, one each by Jashlee Schneider, Kaylee Thomas and Heather Whipple, were all Snowflake could muster against the Bulldog pitchers.
Snowflake fell behind Westwood 6-3 after the first two innings, then fell further behind after the Warriors tacked on three more in the fourth. The Lobos scored two more in the game but came up short.
Whipple hit two home runs, and Rylee Hensley had two doubles in the loss.
Snowflake’s final game of the tournament was a hard fought one run loss to Sunnyslope. The Lobos broke a scoreless tie with three third inning runs. The Vikings battled back tying the game after the fifth. In the final frame Sunnyslope scored four runs and the Lobos could manage just two in the bottom of the seventh. Rylee Hensley hammered another home run and McCray hit a triple in the loss.
“Rylee’s four home runs were shots. Heather also had two in one game and Hallie had a big shot for us. Sydney did great in the circle for us. Kaylee had a great tourney as well. Jashlee played well and Jordyn is doing well as a catcher. Lanee Penrod has been a defensive wall at second for us. We have a lot of room for improvement but we are headed in the right direction. We still want to improve everyday and every game. We have played some good ball but realize there’s lots of work left to do to be competitive in the 3A east. Now we get to focus on games that count for power rankings,” stated Coach Aaron Huish.
After hosting Florence on Tuesday, the Lady Lobos will travel to Winslow on Thursday. Next Tuesday they host Payson. Snowflake entered this week with an overall record of 6-8 however, in regular season power point contests they are 3-1.
