Anna Green

The Pike Liberal Lady Patriots were narrowly defeated 2-0 in overtime by the Ashford Lady Falcons Saturday in the Pike Liberal Jonah McWaters Softball Tournament.

The Lady Patriots had earlier defeated Lakeside Eufaula 8-6. Rebecca Farrar had two RBIs and Shelby Broadway, the starting pitcher, struck out four and had one RBI.

Going into overtime with the Lady Falcons was not an unexpected turn of events for the Lady Patriots. Thursday the team lost to Ashford 6-5 in an overtime game that stretched for 10 innings. Rebecca Farrar, shortstop for the Lady Patriots, said that she was proud of her team for doing so well against Ashford.

“We played really hard, and we stayed with the Falcons. It was tough to lose, but we’ve gotten better as a team,” Farrar said. “I’m proud of my team. We have a lot of potential, and we play very well together.”

The Lady Falcons only had one earned run, while the other run for Ashford was scored by an error from the Lady Patriots. Mendy Avant, coach for the Pike Liberal Lady Patriots, said that she thought her team played well and had a good game defensively.

“Although we didn’t hit the ball nearly as well as I wanted us to, we played very well defensively,” Avant said. “We have a young team and we have made a lot of improvement. This was a good learning experience for us.”

In earlier tournament play, the Lady Patriots (3-3) took out Abbeville Friday afternoon in a shutout, 2-0. Shelby Broadway threw a complete game for Pike, allowing zero runs on one hit, striking out nine batters and walking none.

“Shelby did a good job out there on the mound and Sara (Richburg) did a good job catching her,” PLAS head coach Mendy Avant said. “We had one error on defense and we fielded the ball cleanly today.”

Pike scored one run in the third inning when Richburg tripled and scored on a single by Ellie Barron. Barron was 1-for-2 on the afternoon and Richburg was 1-for-4. The Lady Patriots added the final run of the game in the fifth when Broadway tripled and scored on an error. Broadway was 1-for-3 at the plate. Rebecca Farrar was 2-for-4 at the plate Friday.