It’s not often a team outhits their opponents 20-9 and still ends up with the loss, but that’s what happened when the Graham Lady Blues traveled to Brownwood for a district matchup Friday, April 12.
In a game that required three extra innings, the Lady Blues took a loss 10-9 against the Lady Lions in a wild affair. Graham scored nine runs, had 20 hits but also committed eight errors defensively to aid Brownwood in their winning efforts.
In almost every sport, one of the many keys to success is momentum. Even in baseball, teams build momentum through consecutive hits or with a pitcher and defense working together to keep a hot team at bay.
Last Friday’s game between Graham and Glen Rose was a perfect example of how momentum swings can change a game. The Steers had it at first, then Glen Rose took over and rode that momentum to hand Graham a 6-2 loss.
It was a historic season for the young Lady Blues soccer program this year, which included a second-place finish in the district standings and the team’s first ever playoff win.
In their seven years of existence, the Lady Blues had made the playoffs multiple times already but had yet to secure their first postseason win. They vaulted that mountain last month when they took down Borger to earn a bi-district championship.
The track and field season has ended for many athletes across Texas, but Graham had multiple Steers and Lady Blues participating in the area meet in Abilene last Friday, April 12.
Graham was well represented in both track and field in the Districts 5 & 6 4A Area Championships and has many athletes continuing onto the regional competition in Lubbock. Seven Steers and 12 Lady Blues are moving on in their respective events.
Individuals who finished in the top four of their event qualified for the regional meet.
Varsity Lady Blues
For many of Graham’s track and field athletes, the season came to a close last week at the district competition. But a handful of individuals did enough to move forward to the area track meet and hopefully, many will continue on past that.
Lillian Noble and Zathin Reyes were two of Graham’s gold medal winners in their events — discus and 300-meter hurdles, respectively — and for their work, they have been named Athletes of the Week.
Lillian Noble, discus, Lady Blues track and field
A few games remain in the regular season, but for the Lady Blues, their matchup against the Stephenville Honeybees this week was one of the most important games thus far.
For two teams with almost identical district records at the time, the winner of this game would move into first place in the district standings. The Lady Blues played a complete game all around and pulled out a clutch 3-1 victory over the Honeybees to take sole possession of first place.
On a cold and cloudy day on the road in Glen Rose, the Graham Steers dealt with struggles all around as they took a 10-1 loss Tuesday, April 9 to the Tigers.
With poor weather in the forecast, the game moved up a few hours to ensure the teams could fit it in. But the game time change didn’t make much of a difference as the home team Tigers ran away with the win.
Heading into their matchup at Brownwood last Friday, the Steers baseball team had a 1-1 split in two games with the Lions so far this season.
As the game progressed, it looked like Graham might be headed for a second win to take the season series before the Lions ultimately came back in the final inning and won on a walk-off, handing the Steers a 6-5 loss.
The Steers and Lady Blues track teams finished their two-day competitions at the District 6-4A meets in Mineral Wells last week with every team finishing in the same position.
Varsity and JV boys and girls teams all finished in third place in their respective divisions. The varsity boys earned 115 points, behind Brownwood’s 158 points. The varsity girls came the closest to finishing higher with 128.5 points, just behind Stephenville’s 134.5 points. The JV boys scored 114.5 points while the JV girls recorded 99 points.
Graham’s baseball and softball teams each earned huge wins this past week in different ways. The Lady Blues crushed Mineral Wells 12-0 in a five inning “run rule” game while the Steers held on for a close 2-1 win over Brownwood.
Zoey Harrell of the Lady Blues and Tate Loesch of the Steers earned selections as Athletes of the Week for their roles in their respective teams’ wins, in addition to the hard work they’ve put in all season to this point.
Zoey Harrell, infielder/pitcher, Lady Blues softball
