Lady Lions roar

Girls' softball team sweeps Siloam Springs tournament

— Last weekend was a good one for the Gravette Lady Lions softball team. They pulled a repeat performance of last year by sweeping the Siloam Springs softball tournament.

In opening-round action, Coach Taos Jones’ Lady Lions scored in all four innings as they skunked Northside from Fort Smith, 8-zip. Shyanne Nichols limited the Northside girls to a stingy two hits, while the Lady Lions had five, including a home run by Destany Wishon. Gravette was error-free, while Northside muffed a play once.

Jones’ Lady Lions took charge of Charleston 13-1 in second-round action as they sent the Lady Tigers home to Franklin County in a mercy-rule runaway.

The two teams battled to a 0-0 draw through the first two innings, but the Lions exploded with 10 runs in the third. They added 3 more in the four-inning contest. Gravette had only 7 hits but were aided by 7 Charleston errors. Lindsee LaBrecque limited Charleston to 2 hits for the win. Wishon hit a roundtripper in the runaway.

In the third game of the double-elimination tournament, the Lady Lions also sent the Waldron Lady Bulldogs packing with a 6-4 win. Gravette dropped behind 3-1 early, but the Lady Lions came through with 3 runs in the third and added one each in the fourth and fifth innings. Waldron outslugged Gravette 9 hits to 4. Shyanne Nichols picked up the win.

The title game came down to a match-up with a much-improved Lady Blackhawk team from Pea Ridge. The Hawks had won five in a row from the losers bracket to challenge the Lady Lions.

Gravette jumped to a 4-0 lead through three innings, including a home run by Nichols, who added to her 4-hit victory.

“The kids really came through,” Taos said. “We made some mental mistakes but that is to be expected the first day of theseason for any team. I was extremely proud of them.

“I was also extremely happy to see freshman Lindsee LaBrecque step up and get a win. That really gave Nichols the rest she needed to be strong at the finish for Waldron and Pea Ridge.

“Those last two games were hard on me. I knew Waldron would be good since we faced them in the first round of regionals last year. Pea Ridge has made some huge improvements and they were on a stretch of wins in the tournament. Coach Reynolds has them in a great spot.”

Sports, Pages 7 on 03/14/2012