Cold proves too much in Lady Dawgs’ loss at home

By DRAY WOODS
Leader-Press

It was a cold night on the softball field Tuesday night as the Lorena Leopards came to Bulldawg territory to take on a struggling Lady Dawgs team.
After a brief attempt at a warmup, the Lady Dawgs took to the outfield looking to reach .500 and to get coach Waller his 400th win.  
Alejandra Espinoza welcomed Lorena by snagging a pop up fly ball from J. El-Far. Then the visitors wasted no time making themselves at home, posting two runs off a double by A. Nava, a single by K. Miller and a little help from an error by Anissa Amaro. 
Pitcher Lynsey Robinson then strikes out S. Mondragon looking. 
Larissa Perez scored on an RBI double by Illiana Buitron leaving the Lady Leopards with one unanswered run at the end of 1st inning. 
Meagan Hunt quickly makes up for an error she made at the top of the second. She scoops up  ground ball and leads a double play with a heads up toss to Hair (2B) who whips it over to Buirton(1B) catching H. Delony just before she hits the bag. 
After a runless second inning Lorena scores on an RBI single by T. Bedford. Cove answers with a RBI double driving in Perez. The Lady Leopards post up two more unanswered runs taking the score to 5-3 going into the sixth inning. 
This is when the cold and the Lady Leopards proved to be too much for the Lady Dawgs. Robinson struggled at the mound. After several errant pitches, an error and a forced walk, the Lady Leopards collected nine more runs. 
Hair makes an effort to get the Lady Dawgs back in it with a double that gets Espinoza and Hunt across the plate. Perez smashes one into center field landing herself on second and driving Hair in for a score. Their efforts were to no avail. The Lady Leopards sent the Lady Dawgs back to the porch to the tune of 14-5.  
After the game the coach Bryan Waller had few words for his team, “... I do what I can to make you all better…” Looking into the deflated faces he passionately demand that they “Find out who you are as a team.”  No doubt the coach is tasked with helping his team find the spark that will bring them in from the cold.
Perez was 2 for 3 with 2 runs, 1 RBI, 1 SB and 1 DB leading the Lady Dawgs in batting, Burton was 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs and 2 doubles.  Hair (1 for 4, 1R, 2RBIs)  Hunt (2 for 4, 1R)  Espinoza (1 for 3, 1R)
Next on the schedule for the Lady Dawgs is a trip to Waco University Tuesday, March 1 with a 7 pm first pitch.