Gallatin’s Lady Bulldogs absorbed the experience of playing against larger schools at Saturday’s Benton Softball Tournament. Unfortunately, they also absorbed four losses.
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The Lady Bulldogs are now focused on the Class 1, District 12 Tournament at Grundy County (Galt) High School. Gallatin, the #1 seed, will face the winner of today’s (Wednesday) game between Linn County and Grundy County Thursday at 5 p.m. Second-seeded Green City will play the Meadville vs. Tri-County winner at 6:30 on Thursday.
The winner of District 12 will take on the winner of District 11 being played this week at Canton. The host team is the pre-tournament favorite, having lost only once when the tournament was seeded last week. Should the Lady Bulldogs advance from the district championship game, they would host the sectional game on Oct. 12.
Saturday wasn’t a case of the Lady Bulldogs not being able to score. They just didn’t score enough to win. Gallatin put eight runs on the board against Class 4 St. Teresa’s Academy in their opener but fell, 9-8 in five innings. Sami Boyd singled, homered and drove in two runs. Courtney Shubert singled, doubled and drove in a pair of GHS runs.
Game Two saw host and Class 3 Benton score six runs in the second inning and cruise to an 8-2 win. Karley Salmon singled, doubled and drove in a run for the Lady Bulldogs. Gallatin’s only other hit was a Boyd single. Only four of eight runs off Salmon were earned.
Class 2 Lawson scored in every inning but one on the way to an 11-3 victory in game three of the day. Gallatin led, 3-1, after three frames but Lawson iced the win with four runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings.
Boyd had three hits, including a double, and an rbi. Maelea Coulson singled and doubled. Aubrey Feiden and Shubert also hit safely for Gallatin.
Class 3 Maryville rallied from a 6-5 deficit with single runs in each of the sixth and seventh innings to win, 7-6, in Gallatin’s final game of the day.
Boyd, Shubert and Addison Burns each had a pair of hits. Kelsey Maxwell hit a two-run homer for the Lady Bulldogs. Feiden, Coulson, Ariel Harris and Courtney Smith each had a hit in the contest.