Published: March 23, 2008 03:25 pm            

Cleburne drops to 5-1 in district with loss

The Cleburne Lady Jackets left something behind in Mineral Wells.

One night after scoring at will in a 16-1 win over the Lady Rams on Thursday night, the Cleburne bats were silenced by Crowley pitcher Megan Spence in a 2-0 loss to the Lady Eagles on Friday night at Lady Jacket Field.

With a showdown against top-ranked Aledo looming on Tuesday night, Cleburne head coach Tony Theriault had a simple message for his team following the game.

“What I told them basically is we’ll see how champions react,” he said. “You have to react to adversity. Everybody has to deal with adversity in life and this is an adverse situation.

“We haven’t been here before. I haven’t seen them like this, so we’ll find out come Tuesday.”

Tuesday’s game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Aledo High School.

The Lady Jackets (11-9, 5-1 in District 8-4A) couldn’t mount much of an offensive attack against Spence, who limited Cleburne to one hit — a third-inning triple by Kiley Beard — on the night, while striking out 11.

“Give her credit,” Theriault said of Spence. “She worked ahead to just about every batter. She threw a first-pitch strike to just about every batter. She had a wicked changeup that we were out in front of. We stayed off balance all night long.

“As long as you’re off balance, you don’t feel comfortable up there and those are the things that happen.”

Crowley (8-10, 4-2) took advantage of a couple of first-inning errors by Cleburne to take an early 1-0 lead.

After Cleburne starter Katie Cowan recorded a groundout and a strikeout, Lauryn Smith reached on an error to bring Julie Graham to the plate.

After a passed ball sent Smith to second base, Graham hit a grounder that resulted in another throwing error that allowed Smith to score.

“We just didn’t play very well in the field,” Theriault said. “We made errors and basically the errors led to their runs. You can’t make errors in close ball games and expect to win.”

Cowan settled down and kept Cleburne in the contest, but the Lady Eagles added an insurance run in the top of the sixth inning.

Mazie Monasco led off the inning with a strikeout, but the ball got away from Beard, allowing Monasco to reach.

After a strikeout, Graham belted an RBI triple that plated the runner for the 2-0 lead.

Cowan avoided further damage when she caught Graham in a run down between third and home. After the Lady Jackets tossed the ball back and forth a couple of times, Graham fell to the dirt attempting to get back to third and Cowan applied the tag.

She then recorded a strikeout with a runner on second base to end the threat.

Cleburne didn’t have many offensive chances against Spence.

Jenna Richardson drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the first. She stole second base and went to third on a groundout to shortstop by Shelby Contreras.

Cowan grounded out to shortstop to end the threat.

After Spence pitched around Beard’s third-inning triple, Cowan led off the fourth by reaching on an error.

Spence got out of trouble with a pair of strikeouts and a force out.

In all, Spence retired the final 10 Lady Jackets to earn the victory.

        

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