Mineral Wells Area News

By DAVID MAY

Special to Mineral Wells Area News

After two poor road games this past week, the Lady Rams look forward to finding their way back home. They also need to find their bats.

The diamond girls have managed just one run in their last three games, that one coming in their last game, an 11-1 loss on Friday in Stephenville. On Tuesday, the Lady Rams played District 6-4A first place Graham and fell 12-0, managing three hits. That followed a March 29 home non-district loss to Burkburnett, 14-0, in which the ladies were on-hit.

Mineral Wells (10-18, 1-3) sits in fifth place in the district standings and the season is getting short. Just four games – including three district contests – remain on the 2024 slate. Two of the three remaining district games are home, and the ladies will likely need to win both to have a shot at making the playoffs. Winning all three remaining district games would send Mineral Wells to the postseason.

It begins with Monday’s game (moved up from Tuesday) hosting Brownwood, which sits in fourth place just one game ahead of Mineral Wells. The Lady Lions escaped with a 9-8 win over visiting Mineral Wells on March 22. A loss on Tuesday and Mineral Wells will be left playing out the schedule. First pitch at Kessler Field is set for 6 p.m.

On Friday, Mineral Wells will travel to Glen Rose where picking up a win will be a much tougher task. The Lady Tigers are 3-2 in district, sitting in third place, and 16-11 overall. Glen Rose won 13-3 at Mineral Wells on March 26.

The Lady Rams end the regular season with two home tilts – a non-district game on April 16 facing Lipan and then on April 19 hosting Graham.

Along with finding their bats, the Lady Rams also need to find their good gloves. The team has been error-prone of late. They have been charged with 24 errors in their last four games.

On Friday in Stephenville, the Lady Rams played the Honey Bees close early, trailing just 1-0 going into the bottom of the fourth when Stephenville put up three runs.

Down 4-0 in the top of the fifth, Mineral Wells got on the scoreboard for the first time in its last 15 innings when sophomore Addy Moore led off with a hard single to left. Scottie Denison followed with a single. A double-steal put two Lady Rams in scoring position with no outs.

Hailey McWhorter knocked Moore in with a fielder’s choice grounder to first, leaving Denison on third and McWhorter standing on first with still three outs to work with. A foul out was followed by a fielder’s choice grounder to the pitcher, who threw home in time to put Denison out trying to score. A strikeout ended the inning.

Now a 4-1 game, Stephenville pulled away by plating seven runs in the bottom of the sixth to end the contest.