Lady Cardinals down H-J to win 24-4A unscathed

Published 1:36 pm Saturday, April 23, 2016

BRIDGE CITY — Queens of District 24-4A once again.

This time they went unscathed.

The Bridge City Lady Cardinals wrapped up a perfect District 24-4A campaign Saturday by taking down the Hardin-Jefferson Lady Hawks 8-4 on Senior Day at Lady Cardinal Field.

The Lady Cardinals (28-2, 12-0), ranked No. 3 in the state in Class 4A, used the long ball to take down the Lady Hawks (7-4), who will finish third and will make the playoffs as well.

Senior shortstop Hana Carpenter drilled a three-run home run and freshman catcher Abby Anderson ripped her first-ever home run, a two-run shot, to help propel the offense.

The Lady Cardinals will face District 23-4A fourth-place team Cleveland in the bidistrict round of the playoffs next week.

Both the Lady Cardinals and Lady Hawks finished with 11 hits apiece.

Sophomore Kassidy Wilbur got the win on the mound for BC as she scattered 11 hits while striking out eight and walking two.

H-J’s Raylie Huff absorbed the loss, allowing 11 hits while striking out two and walking two.

H-J went up 1-0 in the top of the first.

Huff drew a walk and Caroline Spacek, who went 4-for-4 singled to left. Taylor Cowart, who was 3-for-4, brought in Huff with a one-out RBI single to right.

The Lady Hawks went up 2-0 in the top of third.

Huff had a leadoff single to left and went to third on an error and scored on Spacek single between short and third.

The Lady Cardinals took control in the bottom of the fourth with six runs on six hits all with two outs.

Maggie Garcia got it going with an infield single and Anderson promptly tied it up with a two-run homer that just squeezed over the centerfield fence.

Baili Thibodaux followed with a single up the middle and then Faith Kaufman, who was 3-for-4, singled to left. That set up Carpenter’s three-run blast over dead centerfield to put BC up 5-2.

Wilbur then had an infield single and eventually scored on a pair of errors by H-J off a grounder hit by Caitlin Denison.

H-J fought back with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth.

Spacek had a one-out single to right and Grace Phelps belted a double to center. Cowart then came through with a two-run single to right.

The Lady Cardinals got two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Thibodaux reached on an error then got out at second after Kaufman hit into a fielder’s choice. Carpenter followed with a single up the middle.

With two outs, Denison roped a RBI single to right to plate Kaufman and Carpenter darted in to score off a Meagan Sourdellia sharp single past third.