After blanking Brewer 7-0 on the road to open district play in their previous outing, the No. 6 Aledo Ladycats softball team hosted the Chisholm Trail Lady Rangers in Aledo’s first district home tilt of the season Tuesday night, March 11. Offensively, Aledo started off hot with a 4-0 lead and never looked back, ultimately walking away with a 12-2 victory in six run-rule shortened innings.
“We only had one inning where we didn’t score a run, and when we know early on that we can continue to hit and manufacture runs, then we will be hard to beat,” Ladycats head coach Heather Myers said. “Even if we score just one run per inning, we know how good our pitching is with a lead.”
With junior pitcher Lily Heckathorn starting in the circle by retiring the first three batters she faced, Aledo’s offense wasted no time lighting up the scoreboard. Ladycats shortstop Marina Taveras opened the action with an RBI triple and first baseman Brooklyn Taloa followed that up with an RBI triple of her own that plated two runners. After that, standout senior Taylor McKean drove in a fourth run with her RBI groundout to first.
Aledo and Chisholm Trail swapped zeroes on the scoreboard in the second inning as Heckathorn posted two strikeouts there and in the third inning. In the bottom of the third inning, Taveras drew a walk before Aledo’s next two batters were retired. Then, junior catcher Breleigh Mayer stepped up to the plate with her walk-up song “Defying Gravity” from the hit movie Wicked by Cynthia Erivo. Within moments, Mayer’s aura skyrocketed as her powerful swing guided her bat to seemingly launch the ball into orbit. On cue from her walk-up song, the ball she thumped defied gravity all the way over the left field fence for a 6-0 lead.
“We talk a lot about how cohesive we are as a team,” Mayer said. “We just keep the energy up the whole game and we know, since our lineup is so deep, that the next person behind us is going to pick us up.”
Sophomore Rylee Marx relieved Heckathorn on the mound in the fourth inning and, despite Chisholm Trail scoring twice in the frame, Myers was pleased with the experience Marx gained from that situation, as she settled in and pitched brilliantly the rest of the way.
“There was a little bit of a struggle during that fourth inning, but there was no way I was going to take her (Marx) out,” Myers said. “She needed to work through that and did a heck of a job working through those next two innings. It’s comforting to the pitchers to maybe miss a spot and know that their defense is going to have their backs no matter what – you can just pitch freely at that point. Our defense gives our pitchers a ton of confidence.”
Aledo added three more runs across the fourth and fifth innings and soared in the sixth. Jordyn Edington crossed home plate ahead of a wild pitch, Taveras and Taloa hammered triples on consecutive at bats and McKean and Kayleigh Martin each registered scoring hits to end the game in six innings.
“We all love the game of softball. We love each other and play for each other, and nobody wants to come to a game where it is quiet during a run-rule win – we want to have our fun, too,” Mayer said. “We understand that we are one of the best teams in the state. We know we can go far and we know this is how it starts.”
Mayer, Taloa and Taveras each starred offensively for Aledo with multiple hits and RBI apiece while Heckathorn impressed on the mound with three innings of no-hit softball followed by a strong showing the rest of the way by Marx.
The Ladycats (13-2, 2-0) won their fifth consecutive game and will take the field again 7 p.m. Friday at Fossil Ridge.
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