Lady Indians fall to Colgan

By Eric Wilson
eric@hometowngirard.com

The St. Paul Lady Indian softball team was defeated by St. Mary’s-Colgan 9-1 Thursday night at Pittsburg State University. The game was apart of the 2-1A Regional Softball Tournament and marked the end of the season for the Lady Indians.
Scoring didn’t get started until the top of the fourth inning after the bases were loaded for Colgan. A walk brought home one Panther runner and kept the bases loaded with no outs.
Colgan’s Sydney Russell came to the plate and smacked a double to right field, scoring two. Another run would score later in the inning, making the score 4-0 after the top of the fourth.
In the bottom of the inning, St. Paul could not get a runner on base and was retired quickly.
Again, the Panthers found another way to score in the fifth after a wild pitch allowed a runner to score at the plate. The Lady Indians were down 5-0 after five innings.
After another one-run sixth inning for Colgan, St. Paul finally found the scoreboard. In the bottom of the inning, sophomore Katelin O’Brien found her way home off of a sacrifice fly from Josie Albertini, making the score 6-1 at the end of the sixth.
The next inning put the nail on the coffin for the Lady Indians. Colgan scored three runs in the top of the inning to put the pressure on St. Paul’s bats, with the score now being 9-1 heading into the last half inning.  St. Paul was unable to get a runner on base in the bottom of the seventh, ending the game with a score of 9-1.

The loss brought the team’s record to 11-9 on the year. Josie Albertini pitched the majority of the game and registered a strikeout in the process. Aubrey Corn relieved her late in the contest. Senior Morgan Carter and sophomore Sidney Rice each had a hit in the game. O’Brien led the way for the Lady Indians going 2-2 from the plate.
With the win, Colgan advanced to the championship game on Friday night. They defeated Oswego, effectively punching their ticket to the state tournament.
St. Paul will lose some valuable pieces to graduation including Josie Albertini, Morgan Carter and Holly Hutcherson. However, the Lady Indians squad was much improved in 2016 and will look to build off of their winning season as spring rolls around next year.