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Rice’s Lady Raider softball team has officially finished their season with the hope that they will be able to turn around their success in future seasons. The Lady Raiders dealt with different struggles all season, many of which were simultaneously present in nearly every game this season. Whether it was difficulties reaching base, or preventing their opponents from doing so, the Lady Raiders did not find much success in general as they faced off against a potent set of district teams. After last week’s loss to Industrial and then to the district-leading Lady Cards, the Lady Raiders completed their season without picking up a win in district play.
Vs Industrial, L, 12-0 One of the main issues for the Lady Raiders is that they were often outhit by their opponents in their losses this season. This trend remained true against the Lady Cobras of Industrial as they struggled to hold the Industrial batters to ineffective trips at the plate. The Lady Raiders were outhit 16-3 as they failed to keep up with the hot hitting of their opponents. Industrial started the game hot as they looked to claim a lead as quickly as possible. They scored 10 runs in the bottom of the first to claim a decisive advantage and build an insurmountable lead that the Lady Raiders would not be able to cut into. The Lady Cobras scored two more runs in the third inning before being held scoreless in the fourth, but they never had to play a fifth inning as the officials called the mercy-rule victory following another scoreless inning by the Lady Raiders. Abigail Hoelscher, Ariana Palacios and Alejandra Palacios contributed one hit each as they provided all of the base pressure for the Lady Raiders.
Vs Columbus, L, 13-3 The Lady Raiders were once again peppered by a huge number of hits as they found no solution to the impressive hitting of the Columbus Lady Cardinals. Rice was outhit 22-9 as the Lady Cards had one of their best hitting nights of the season. The Lady Raiders put up a strong fight in the first few innings of the game. After sacrificing three runs each in the first and second innings, the Lady Raiders bounced back with three runs in the bottom of the second inning to cut into the deficit. However, they never got much closer to scoring runs as they finished the game with four-straight scoreless innings.
Ariana Palacios led the team in hits by adding two to the team’s total. Tatianna Mills, Ava Torres, Abigail Hoelscher, Brooke Ford, Beautiful Johnson and Alejandra Palacios added the other hits for the Lady Raiders with one apiece. Alejandra and Taylor Eichelberger provided the only RBIs for the squad in this game.
