The Bauxite Lady Miners softball team went into the Tournament of Champions with a perfect 6-0 record. Playing the best competition in the state, the Lady Miners suffered their first loss to the 7A Rogers Lady Mounties, 3-2, on Friday and again fell by one run to the 6A defending state champion Greenwood Lady Bulldogs, 2-1, on Saturday.
“We didn’t come into the tournament with necessarily high expectations,” Bauxite Coach Sara Tew said. “We were coming to get some experience with better teams and learn a lot. We have. Those two teams are great and I’m impressed that we can hang with them like that.”
The Lady Miners weren’t too shabby themselves last season, making it to the 4A State Championship and falling to Mena, which the Lady Miners played to wrap up the TOC on Saturday. Results will be in Monday’s The Saline Courier.
“We play Mena, who we played four times last year and lost to them every time,” Tew said. “I told the girls you have to be hungry for this one, coming out and show them we have improved, by far. We’ve gotten a lot better this year.”
Saturday against Greenwood, it was a scoreless game until the bottom of the fourth when freshman Destiny McClain hit a two-out double and came around to score on junior Sydney Oliver’s single up the middle for the 1-0 lead.