MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / May 3, 2000

ALEXANDRIA – Thirteen proved to be a lucky number for Baker and an unlucky one for Hahnville in the Class 5A quarterfinals of the LHSAA Softball tournament Friday afternoon at the Alexandria Youth Softball Complex.

Baker pitcher Lindsey Meadows struck out 13 Lady Tiger batters and allowed just three hits in leading the Lady Buffaloes to a 3-0 victory.

Baker (27-3) defeated Byrd, 1-0, in the semifinals Saturday morning before losing to Denham Springs, 5-0, in the championship game later that evening.

Hahnville, the District 7-5A champions, finished its season at 15-4.

Meadows walked two in improving to 26-3 on the season. Fallon Canciennegave up five hits while walking two and striking out two.

“She had some really good pitches,” Cancienne said of her counterpart. “Andtheir defense made the plays behind her. She did really well but I think wecould have hit her. We just weren’t here today.”Hahnville had the first scoring opportunity as Courtney Frickey beat out a grounder to third and stole second with two outs in the top of the first. ButMeadows came back to get Colleen Lockhart to pop up to second to end the inning.

Hahnville threatened again in the third with Crisham drawing a walk with one out. After Kelly Watson popped up, Crisham stole second and third butMeadows again got out of the inning by striking out Frickey.

Baker broke through in the bottom of the inning. Katie Murray led off with awalk and was sacrificed to second by Casie Campbell. April Atkins thengrounded out to short, advancing Murray to third. Kayla Dibenedeno followedby beating out a bunt along the first baseline, scoring Murray to give the Lady Buffaloes a 1-0 lead.

Lockhart led off the fourth with a walk but was left stranded.

The Lady Buffaloes added two insurance runs in the fifth inning. Murray againignited the rally, leading off the inning by beating out a grounder to third.

Atkins followed with a walk and Dibenedeno beat out a grounder to short to load the bases. After Meadows popped up to second, Katherine Achee lined asingle to left. Murray and Atkins scored to make it 3-0 but Dibenedeno wasthrown out at third to end the inning.

Meadows struck out the side in the sixth and got the first two batters in the seventh. Lindsay Yochim kept the inning alive with a single to left. Meadowsthen struck out Dixi Dufrene but had the ball bounce away from catcher Haley Murray as Dufrene raced to first. Yochim advanced to third as Murraythrew the ball into left field. But with two strikes on Cristy McCully, Yochimwas caught off the bag for the final out.

“All in all, I thought we had a good season,” Hahnville coach E.J. Tassin said. “Ithought we did pretty good.”

Return To Sports Stories

Copyright © #Thisyear# Wick Communications, Inc.Best viewed with 4.0 or higher