Mineral Wells Area News

By DAVID MAY | Special to Mineral Wells Area News

Limited offense, errors doom Mineral Wells

The Mineral Wells Lady Rams let one get away late, dropping a 10-3 contest to visiting Stephenville on Friday at Kessler Field.

The Honeybees plated six runs in the last two innings to break open a tight game. Mineral Wells was unable to generate much offense against Stephenville’s pitching. The Lady Rams hurt their cause in the field, allowing five unearned runs on four errors.

The loss dropped Mineral Wells to 15-7 on the season and 2-2 in District 6-4A play. Stephenville improved to 12-10-1 in winning their first district game in four tries.

The game started well for Mineral Wells. Pitcher Hailey McWhorter faced seven batters in the first two innings, inducing a trio of strikeouts and three groundouts while allowing just one hit.

She then scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the second. She led off the inning being hit by a pitch. She stole second and scored on a wild pitch.

The Honeybees scored four times in the top of the fourth. Two singles and an error loaded the bases. Another error scored a run. A passed ball gave Stephenville a 2-1 lead ahead of a two-out, two-RBI hit to make it 4-1 in the visitors’ favor. It would be all the runs they would need.

The Lady Rams did tighten things up with two runs in their half of the fifth. An Angy Bista walk and Karli Aaron double put two runners on base with no outs. Pinch-runner Addy Moore stole home and Aubree Yowell singled home Aaron.

Stephenville struck for four runs in the top of the sixth and added two more in the seventh while keeping the Lady Rams’ offense at bay.

Aaron had three of Mineral Wells’ five hits in the game while Yowell had the other two.

McWhorter went all seven innings in the circle for Mineral Wells, giving up nine hits and 10 runs (five earned) while striking out eight and issuing just three walks.

Next up for Mineral Wells is a game at Graham on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.