The old saying goes “to beat the best, you have to beat the best”. Well, while the Thrall Tigerettes didn’t bring home any wins from last weekend’s NFCA Leadoff Classic in College Station, they did gain a lot of experience against some of the best teams in Texas.
The Tigerettes (1-5) lost all five games in the three-day event, but despite the set-backs, the Tigerettes gained some valuable experience. “I am not disappointed in the least in how we played,” said Thrall Coach Jenny Hess. “This tournament was to prepare us for where we want to be in April and May. And if this is how we look now, I’m ecstatic about what we will look like then.”
Thrall took on the likes of El Paso Montwood, Houston CyFair, Montgomery Lake Creek, and Tomball. They scored in every game, and overall played solid softball through the entire tournament. “In our first game against Magnolia Lake Creek, their pitcher is 21-0 during her high school career and a University of Florida signee and we scored a run off of her,” Hess said. “We were in every game and hung with some monster schools.”
In the tournament opener against Lake Creek, the Lady Lions’ Mattie McKee picked up three hits, including a homerun, to help Lake Creek to a 6-1 win. Aubrie Henderson had the only hit for the Tigerettes, but she made it count with a lead-off homerun in the fourth.
Henderson picked up another hit against CyFair on Thursday, hitting a lead-off double in the top of the first inning. Addison Leschber’s grounder brought Henderson home for a 1-0 Thrall lead. CyFair answered scoring two in the bottom of the first and went on to an 8-1 win.
On Friday, the Tigerettes took on Willis and Tomball. In the first game, facing Willis, the Henderson-Leschber combination staked the Tigerettes to another 1-0 lead. Henderson walked to lead off the first and scored on a Leschber grounder. Willis responded with six unanswered runs in route to an 8-2 win.
Against Tomball, the Tigerettes had their best chance to pick up a win. Tomball jumped out to an 8-0 lead going into the bottom of the second, but the Tigerettes rallied to cut the lead to 8-6 after three and trailed just 9-8 going into the fifth. Tomball tacked on a pair of runs to push its lead to 11-8, but the Tigerettes wouldn’t quit.
Mikayla Velasquez led off the bottom of the fifth with a single. Two outs later Dezi Lopez and Leschber hit back-to-back singles to cut the lead to 11-9, but that was as close as they would get as they dropped the 11-9 decision.
In their tournament finale, the Tigerettes dropped an 8-2 decision to El Paso Montwood. Leschber hit her first home run of the season for the Tigerettes.
“We focused on the small victories,” Hess said. “Our defense was great and I feel like we learned more about making adjustments at the plate.”
The Tigerettes had their home opener on Tuesday night when they hosted Manor New Tech. They will finish out the week playing in the Caldwell tournament beginning on Thursday.
