Lady Broncos ?walk? all over Van Buren Co. – Boyd strolls into 9-A second round

The Lady Bronco softball team entered Thursday night?s first-round District 9-A tournament game as the No. 2 seed, taking on seventh-seeded Van Buren County. Boyd Christian didn?t waste any time, taking care of the Lady Eagles 15-0 in three innings.

Cassie Wanamaker picked up the win, allowing one hit and one walk. Courtney Hard went 3-for-3 for the Lady Broncos, while Lyndsey King, Leah Walker, Megan Boren and Ashlei Bain added a hit apiece.

The Lady Eagles? only hit of the game in the top of the first, before Wanamaker struck out the next three batters.

Boyd sent all 15 runs across the plate in the bottom of the first inning. King drew a leadoff walk, followed with a single from Hard. With one out Van Buren County walked the next three batters and then back-to-back errors by the Lady Eagles helped send five runs to the plate for Boyd.

The walks and errors continued as Boyd once again loaded the bases from the Lady Eagles? mistakes. Hard came up to bat and slapped a single, driving home two runs. Back-to-back walks put runners in scoring position for Walker, who singled and picked up two RBIs. Tosha Young drew a walk, then back-to-back singles by Boren and Bain put the Lady Broncos up 14-0.

Four consecutive walks by the Lady Broncos added one more run to the board, and Hard came up to bat for the third time in the inning and connected for another single before Van Buren finally got out of the inning.

In the top of the second Van Buren County put one runner on after drawing a walk, but the Lady Bronco defense got out of the inning with no damage being done.

Van Buren went down in order in the bottom of the third as the game was called due to the run rule, giving the Lady Broncos their first-round tournament victory.

The Lady Broncos were scheduled to compete in the second round of the District 9-A tournament on Saturday afternoon, but scheduling had to be changed due to the weather.

Second-round results will be in Wednesday?s edition of the Southern Standard.