College Station softball team falls 1-0 in Game 1 against Barbers Hill
CYPRESS - The College Station and Barbers Hill softball teams both came in state ranked, but you never would guessed there were 20 spots separating the two in Wednesday's Class 5A Division I area round series opener.
That's because the 22nd-ranked Lady Cougars gave No. 2 Barbers Hill all it could handle before falling 1-0 in Game 1 at Cy-Fair High School.
"Man, that was a heck of a ballgame," College Station head coach Vinnie Carreon said. "Two really good teams going after it tonight and they got the one run in the seventh. I was really proud of our kids."
The best-of-three 5A-I area matchup is a rematch from last year. In that series, College Station was swept and outscored 7-2 by the eventual state runner-up.
Wednesday showed it will be another series where runs are hard to come by for both teams. Barbers Hill (33-4) had only been held to just one run in two other games this season, a 1-0 district win over Nederland on April 14 and a 4-1 loss to Conroe in nondistrict on Feb. 13.
On the flip side, the Lady Cougars (26-9) had been shut out only three other times this season. College Station was held in check by Waxahachie (10-0) and Kingwood (5-0) in nondistrict in February and fell 4-0 to district foe Montgomery most recently on March 31.
Through the first six innings at Cy-Fair, it was all about the defenses as both teams bent but didn't break. College Station sophomore pitcher Addisyn Shilling matched Barbers Hill junior and LSU commit Macie Bryant batter for batter.
Bryant held College Station to just three hits and struck out 12, while Shilling was not far behind her. The sophomore gave up five hits, one run, unearned, one walk, two hit by pitches and five strikeouts.
The two pitchers also had strong defenses behind them to help them out.
"We had some opportunities early in the game and our defense came through," Vinnie Carreon said. "Addi threw a great game, [and] we made some really good plays defensively to go throw girls out at home, but we ran into a really good pitcher today who did her job and their defense was solid today also."
For example, Barbers Hill loaded the bases in the top of the sixth with two outs, but a groundout ended the chance. Similarly in the fourth, Barbers Hill had a runner 60 feet from the plate on two separate occasions, but the Lady Cougars kept the tie going.
The first runner was nabbed at home on a fielder's choice for the inning's second out. The next at-bat, a hard-hit groundout ended the frame.
On that grounder, College Station shortstop Callia Carreon dove out for the ball where it hit her glove and rolled over right to second baseman Shaenyn Yates who picked it up and stepped on the bag to end the inning.
The one blemish on College Station's defense came in the seventh as leadoff batter Savannah Barrientos reached on an error and later came around to score. After stealing second, S. Barrientos didn't have to wait long to break the scoreless drought as Aybrie Corona's RBI single was the difference.
In the bottom of the seventh, College Station went down 1-2-3. The only Lady Cougars with a hit were Callia Carreon, Ambar Aguilar and Hayden Urban.
All three games of the series will take place at Cy-Fair. Game 2 of the series is at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. If necessary, the third game is set for 6:30 p.m. Friday.
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