Lady Blues softball earns summer league win

• (TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) The Lady Blues’ Hudson Wright swings and makes contact with a pitch for one of her two doubles during Graham’s exhibition game Thursday, June 13 against Santo. The Lady Blues defeated the Lady Wildcats 9-1.
• (TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Graham’s Zoey Harrell rounds second base and heads for third during the Lady Blues’ summer league game Thursday, June 13. Harrell finished the game 1-for-2 at the plate and pitched a scoreless inning with three strikeouts.
• (TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Graham’s Tiffany Cotter fires a warmup pitch home during the team’s summer league game Thursday, June 13 against Santo. The Lady Blues defeated the Lady Wildcats 9-1 in an unofficial exhibition game.
• (TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) The Graham Lady Blues meet at the pitcher’s circle before the start of an inning. The team faced Santo in their summer league match-up and defeated the Lady Wildcats 9-1.

Before the temperature gets too unbearably hot, some of Graham High School’s athletic teams are getting in practice by participating in summer leagues.

The Lady Blues softball team has spent the past couple weeks playing in exhibition games against area opponents, and most recently, they took on the Santo Lady Wildcats.

Following the 2023-2024 season, Graham had several seniors graduate and move on from the softball program. Those who remain have welcomed a number of younger players who are looking for opportunities to join the varsity squad.

In an unofficial game Thursday, June 13, the Lady Blues took down the Lady Wildcats 9-1 in a lopsided victory.

As part of the summer league, teams are playing with modified rules to give players plenty of chances to gain experience on defense and offense. The games last 75 minutes and stop at that cutoff time no matter the inning.

Similar to baseball, a half inning ends with either three outs made by the defense or four runs scored by the offense.

In Graham’s exhibition game, the Lady Blues nearly completed four innings of gameplay and dominated the visitors.

With the games not counting towards anything, all stats were unofficial, but the Lady Blues threw a shortened no-hitter against the Lady Wildcats. Santo batted in four innings and all 12 outs came by means of a strikeout.

Returning varsity members Tiffany Cotter and Zoey Harrell combined in the pitching circle to keep Santo at bay. The only baserunners the Lady Wildcats got came courtesy of a few walks and a hit by pitch.

Santo’s only run came in the second inning when the leadoff batter walked, stole second base and came around to score on a wild pitch and a passed ball. While the Lady Wildcats had at least one runner on in each inning, none of the outs were recorded by the fielders.

Cotter went three innings, struck out nine, gave up four walks and one unearned run while Harrell came on for the final inning and proceeded to shut down Santo in short order with three strikeouts.

Offensively, the Lady Blues had their way of things in the first two innings. Graham’s first two hitters walked and the next two hitters, Larissa Warren and Harrell, both tripled. Three runs had already come across before newcomer Hudson Wright doubled down the left field line to bring in the fourth run of the inning.

Graham’s bats stayed hot in the second inning. After the first batter was retired, three singles, multiple stolen bases, a walk and a sacrifice fly turned into another four runs for the team as they took an 8-1 lead after two innings of play.

The third inning was the first scoreless inning for Graham’s offense, despite a big double by Wright. In the fourth inning, the Lady Blues started the inning with a leadoff triple from Briley Randall, who was then brought home with an RBI groundout from Gabriella Hernandez.

Kerstin Schupbach kept the offense going with a grounder to third base that she beat out for a single. But time expired during the next at bat and Graham walked away with the big 9-1 win.

Randall and Wright each finished the game 2-for-2 to lead the team. Nearly every player reached base and scored at least one run. It was a strong offensive showing for the team as they work towards next season.

As the second half of the month begins, the Lady Blues only have a few more chances to play in the summer league. Games take place Thursday evenings at Graham’s Hogan Field.

• Sports