The Ryan Cowgirl slow-pitch softball squad will take a 4-6 mark into today’s Class 2A District Tournament at Central High.
The Cowgirls will compete in the district tourney with the host school, Snyder and Geronimo. Central High is the top seed in the tournament, but the Lady Bronchos have lost three of six games in the past few days.
The Lady Bronchos still have a 23-4 record – including games played through Monday – heading into the district tournament. That is 17 more games than Ryan has played.
Geronimo and Snyder sport similar records to the Cowgirls, but have also played nearly double the number of contests as Ryan.
Action was to have gotten underway today at 11 a.m. with the Cowgirls taking on Central High followed by the Geronimo-Snyder contest.
The tournament is double-elimination, but is slated to be completed today. The winner of the tournament will advance to the regional tourney.
The regular season was difficult for the Cowgirls in more than just wins and losses.
Three of the scheduled games with opponents were cancelled because they could not field a team.
Two other scheduled games were postponed because of weather issues.
Last week the Cowgirls competed with 13 other teams in the Fletcher Invitational Tournament and played nearly as many games as they had in the entire regular season.
In the tournament’s opening contest with Verden, the Cowgirls fell behind 3-0 in the first inning and could never get the big hit needed to spark a rally. The Cowgirls left 11 runners stranded.
Justyce Keith scored the only Cowgirl run in the bottom of the fourth inning in the 3-1 loss.
In the next round, the Cowgirl bats came alive early against Lawton Christian School. The Cowgirls scored three in the bottom of the first inning after LCS had put two runs on the board in the top of the inning.
The Cowgirls got on top in the second inning with a four-run uprising to hold a 7-2 lead.
The Lady Crusaders tried to rally in the fourth and fifth innings by scoring one run in each inning, but were retired in order in the top of the sixth to give the Cowgirls a 7-4 victory.
The win set up another match with Verden.
Verden took the lead in the top of the second with a run, but the Cowgirls answered in the bottom of the inning with runs by Abbie Bolin and Brooke Charmasson.
The Cowgirls gave up two runs in the top of the fourth to the Lady Tigers giving Verden a 3-2 advantage.
Ryan mounted a rally in the bottom of the fourth scoring four runs and leaving two Cowgirls stranded on the bases to secure a 6-3 lead.
Verden added a run in the top of the fifth after two were out, but the Cowgirls retired the final batter before the rally could continue and picked up a 6-4 victory.
The Cowgirls were eliminated by Chickasha last Friday, 9-3, as the Lady Chicks picked up their first victory of the season.
Chickasha scored all the runs they would need in the bottom of the first inning with four tallies. The Cowgirls escaped further damage by getting the third out with the bases loaded.
In the bottom of the second, the Lady Chicks added to the lead with four more runs to give the Cowgirls an 8-0 deficit.
The Cowgirls struck for two runs in the top of the third inning with Kenzie Lewis and Samantha Good getting base hits and eventually scoring to cut the margin to 8-2.
Chickasha added another run in the bottom of the fourth and the Cowgirls tried to rally in the top of the fifth, but could come up with only a single run.
