A&M Consolidated's season ends with Game 3 5A-I bi-district loss to Crosby
CYPRESS - Just as it had the previous two games, Game 3 of the A&M Consolidated and Crosby softball teams' playoff series came down to the final inning Saturday at Cy Park High School.
Unfortunately for the Lady Tigers, they couldn't secure a second straight win as Consol fell 6-5 to Crosby in the winner-take-all game of the Class 5A Division I bi-district series.
"I absolutely thought we gave it a full effort," A&M Consolidated head coach Heather Slaton said. "It did not look like we gave up."
The Lady Tigers (15-11) trailed 6-4 heading into the top of the seventh and were looking for a repeat of Friday night's seventh-inning magic. To even force the third game, Consol had to win the nightcap in Friday's doubleheader after being walked off 6-5 in Game 1.
Brooklyn Cline was the hero in Game 2 as she broke a 3-3 tie with an RBI double.
Consol showed it still had a little bit of that magic Saturday as Brooklyn Gidley helped cut the deficit to one. With one out, Gidley slapped one to left field that just stayed far and bounced toward the wall. Gidley raced around the bases to score on an inside-the-park home run. Makenna Cline also homered for Consol with a three-run shot to put the Lady Tigers up 4-3 in the third inning.
Consol couldn't keep the momentum going from Gidley's homer as a groundout, walk and flyout to center field ended the game.
And while there was no walk-off victory Saturday, the teams' even play from the first two games was on display again in the finale. After Consol went up 4-3, Crosby answered in the bottom half of the third on Keilee Askew's RBI single.
The score remained 4-4 until the fifth when Crosby took the lead on Hannah Daniel's sacrifice fly and it added to that lead on a Consol fielding error, one of two Crosby runs that came off errors with the other coming in a three-run first inning.
"We didn't look polished on defense, we didn't play clean defense, we didn't have a clean sheet, but I will tell you this our pitchers went hard today, and they gave us everything they had," Slaton said.
Consol started Gretchen Rudolph, the winning and starting pitcher in Game 2, before turning it over to Game 1 starter Ashley McDonald to start the fourth inning. Idaho State signee Tori Dahnke recorded a third straight complete game for Crosby (18-11-1).
This marked the final game for Consol's four seniors, all of whom spent four seasons on varsity. The group includes infielder Gidley, outfielder Emma Ford, utility Mackenzie Burdett and infielder Peyton Valentine.
"Every few years, there's a senior class that comes through that for whatever reason you just get really close with and really bond with and [are] tight with," Slaton said. "For me, this was one of those senior classes. I like them as humans. I would love for this to have fallen our way to be able to do it another week with them."
Ford, Gidley and Valentine are all headed to Power 4 programs next. Ford is going to Clemson, while Gidley and Valentine will play at Florida and Auburn, respectively.
"The legacy that they leave as far as things that they've done for our programs and records that they set and things like that, it's beyond words," Slaton said. "I don't have words for that. What they've done for our program is beyond measure. They've helped really shape kind of this modern Consol softball."
The Lady Tigers are set to bring back 10 of their 14 players from this year's team. Besides the four seniors, Consol had three juniors, one sophomore and six freshmen.
"There's big shoes to fill and we got to make sure that we work in the offseason to get ready to prepare for that," Slaton said. "I'm not sure if you can ever replace people, I don't know that happens but maybe we can shape some of our younger kids and underclassmen to be as competitive as these seniors."
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