Sulphur bound again

PINE PRAIRIE -- For the third year in a row, the Pine Prairie Lady Panthers have found themselves in the quarter-final round of the LHSAA softball playoffs. This time around it was after taking down the Mamou Lady Demons 11-1 Friday afternoon in regional playoff action.
The Lady Panthers improved their overall record to 31-4 and will take on the Kaplan Lady Pirates at the Allstate Sugar Bowl/LHSAA Softball State Tournament on Friday. The Lady Pirates defeated Iota 2-0 on Friday to advance. Game time is set for 2:30 p.m.
The Lady Demons finished the season with an overall record of 19-14 and a playoff win over Port Barre this past Monday.
The game basically came down to one important part of the game: defense.
The Mamou Lady Demons committed five costly errors, while the Pine Prairie Lady Panthers were mistake free.
“They got good hits on 0-2 counts and 1-2 counts, and they made defensive plays when they needed to, we didn’t,” stated Mamou head coach Kim Manuel after the game.
“Any good team is going to put the ball in play and force their opponent to make plays,” said Pine Prairie head coach Woody Harvey. “Their pitcher Dacia (Richard) had our number at the beginning of the game. We did a good job of making some adjustments, and it paid off.”
For the first three innings of the game, it seemed as if a pitching duel would be the order of the day. Both Pine Prairie and Mamou were limited on the number of hits produce as neither team could seem to figure out the other’s starting pitcher.
The Lady Panthers were able to strike first. After Pine Prairie starting pitcher Karli Ortego shut out the Lady Demons in the top of the first inning, the Lady Panthers were able to pick up a run in the bottom half of the inning.
Jacie McFalain led things off with a base hit and reached second base on a throwing error. McFarlain then moved to third when Maycie Hardy laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt.
After a pop up to the short stop for the second out of the inning, Abby Fontenot singled to right field, scoring McFarlain for the first run of the game. From there Richard killed the rally by inducing a pop up to the short stop.
Undaunted, the Lady Demons bounced back to tie the game up in the top of the second inning. Teralyn Fontenot led off by ripping a single up the middle.
Emily Soileau was spot on with a sacrifice bunt that moved Fontenot over to second base. A single off of the bat of Tierane Thomas was good enough to plate Fontenot. From there Ortego killed the momentum, getting the next two Mamou batters out.
Pine Prairie was sent down in order in the bottom of the second, as were the Lady Demons in the top of the third.
The bottom of the third was a fruitful inning for the Lady Panthers, as they picked up two more runs to go up 3-0.
Kaitlin Robinson started the inning with a base hit. McFarlain chopped a ball to Mamou short stop Madison Fontenot, who flipped it over to Sophia Fritz covering the bag at second base for the first out.
With McFarlain at first on the fielder’s choice, Hardy singled to put runners at first and second with one out. Tori Johnson hit a shot on the right side that was mishandled and the ball got all the way to the wall, scoring McFarlain and putting Hardy at third and Johson at second.
Abby Fontenot hit a fly ball deep enough to left field to allow Hardy to score on the tag-up. However, Richard got the next Pine Prairie batter to ground out to Fritz for the 4-3 play.
From that point on, Ortego was stellar on the mound for the Lady Panthers, only allowing one hit in the Lady Demons’ final three at bats.
Pine Prairie basically put the game away in the bottom of the fifth. The Lady Panthers added seven runs on six hits during that offensive output to take a commanding 10-1 lead.
McFarlain singled to begin the inning and reached third base when the ball got past the Lady Demon outfield on another error. A ground out to the pitcher produced the first out and kept McFarlain at first base.
Johnson followed with a single of her own, plating McFarlain. Johnson moved to second on a successful steal attempt. A strike out made it two away.
Asia George roped a pitch to left field for a base hit, putting Johnson at third base. George stole second as well and Soileau was hit by the pitch to load the bases.
Brianna Wall ripped a single to center field, scoring both Johnson and George. That ball also got past the Mamou outfield and allowed Soileau to come home and Wall to reach third base.
Wall would scored on a single off of the bat of Allie Fontenot. Robinson would also single, placing Fontenot at third base. McFarlain came to the plate for the second time in the inning and singled home Fontenot. Another error by the Lady Demons brought home Robinson for the final run of the inning.
Pine Prairie finished the game off in the bottom of the sixth when Asia George doubled with two outs, stole third base and walked across the plate on a single by Robinson.
With that run, the Lady Panthers found themselves in the quarter-finals, a place all too familiar.
“Most of these girls have been to Sulphur before, but we do have four freshman who haven’t been there,” commented Harvey. “They are going to be excited, but they have done a phenomenal job to date and they deserve to go there. There will be some great competition over there. We knew we would have our hands full tonight with Mamou. We did not take them lightly by any means. We just have to take it one step at a time now.”
Despite the loss, Manuel praised her team’s efforts this season.
“I thought we worked hard this season and overcame some obstacles,” said Manuel. “We were able to accomplish some goals. This season is definitely something we can use to build on for next year. We just have to keep improving and work even harder to get back here and move forward.”
For the Lady Panthers, McFarlain led the way on offense, going 3-for-4 with three runs scored and an RBI. George was 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
On the mound, Ortego allowed one run on four hits and struck out six.
The Lady Demons were led at the plate by 1-for-2 with an RBI.