Wise County Messenger Online

With temperatures below 40 degrees and a brutal wind of nearly 40 miles per hour at times, the Alvord High School softball team had to generate some kind of heat at the Alvord tournament last weekend.

The Lady Bulldogs found it in their hot bats. They scored at least nine runs in three out of five games and won four of them en route to taking second place at the Wise County event.

Alvord won four games of the tournament to reach the championship against state-ranked Archer City Saturday afternoon. That's where the locals' offensive production finally cooled in a 7-2 loss to the Wildcats.

Archer City scored the only runs it needed in the first inning. The visitors used a two-run home run, two walks and an error to jump out to a 4-0 lead. ACHS added three insurance runs in the fourth and fifth innings on another home run, an error and two hits.

The Lady Bulldogs broke up the no-hitter in the third inning when Whitney Enis slapped a single to right field. She later scored on an error to make it a 4-1 game.

Alvord cut the deficit in half when Holly Harris scored after walking later in the inning. The Wildcats, however, retired the next six batters to get the win.

Alvord's Ainsley Shaffer took the loss in the circle.

"We played pretty good for the tournament," said AHS coach Ron Holson. "The only team we lost to was in the championship game and they are ranked in the top 15 of the state."

The Lady Bulldogs wasted little time finding home plate in the first round of action. They were patient in drawing eight walks and capitalized on four errors in a 14-3 rout of Saint Jo.

The entire batting order made a plate appearance in the first inning where AHS took a 4-0 lead. Leslie Hampton, Courtney Hopkins and Enis all walked and later scored on errors and a hit by Chelsi Redman.

Alvord pushed the lead to 9-0 in the second inning thanks to three errors and two walks. The locals scored five more in the third frame which was sparked by a triple by Hopkins and singles via Caitlyn Virden and Harris.

Saint Jo got its only runs in the third inning.

The Lady Bulldogs got another lopsided win in the next round of play against Godley. They scattered 10 hits and got solid pitching from Redman on their way to an 11-2 win.

The game was never in doubt after the first inning. Kinsey and Redman ripped singles to left field and AHS jumped ahead 4-0.

The lead hit 6-0 in the second frame thanks to a single by Enis, a sacrifice via Hopkins and Hampton and singles by Shaffer and Kinsey.

Godley broke up the shutout in the fifth inning with a double and a single to make it 11-2.

Lindsay proved a small challenge Saturday morning where Alvord had to score twice in the last inning to get the win. Enis got on base by an error, and Hopkins walked, but both later scored on an error to make it 4-2.

The Knights' first two batters of the game scored on a double and a walk to go ahead 2-0 from the start. Shaffer, however, only allowed two hits the rest of the game to get the win.

Alvord went on to beat Peaster 8-2 and Muenster 9-3. Against Peaster, the Lady Bulldogs got singles by Kinsey and Shaffer and walks by Enis and Virden to take a 4-1 lead after one inning.

The Greyhounds scored one unearned run to erase the shutout. Alvord tacked on two more runs in the second inning thanks to a single by Kinsey, and a sacrifice via Hopkins before Hampton was safe on an error.

The Lady Bulldogs scored all nine of the runs against Muenster in the first two innings. Redman and Hopkins singled before the Hornets committed three straight errors which allowed five runs to make it home. Alvord added four more runs in the second inning to cruise to victory.