Caddo softball and Colbert and Calera baseball teams saw their fall seasons come to an end in the opening round of the state tournament action last week.
Each of the three found runs tough to come by as Caddo fell to Okarche, 10-4, Colbert dropped a 10-1 decision to Dale and Calera fell to Silo by a 12-2 count.
Caddo Softball
The Lady Bruins carried a 4-3 lead into the fifth inning but saw their string of five straight state finals appearances snapped as Okarche scored seven unanswered runs over the final three stanzas for the win.
Caddo claimed the early advantage with a first inning run as Kayden Prince walked, stole second and third before scoring on a Braylee Malone sacrifice fly.
The Lady Warriors answered with three runs over the following two innings when the Lady Bruins went back on the offensive attack to reclaim the edge.
Brylee Daniel doubled to left with one out and rode home on a Kiersyn Powell single just before Gage Vaughn blasted a two-run go-ahead homer over the centerfield fence. Caddo’s bats however went silent after that, going hitless until a Vaughn leadoff single in the seventh.
By that point though it was just about out of reach after Okarche pushed across four in the fifth, one in the sixth and two more in the top of the seventh.
Daniel struck out 11 in the pitching circle over six stanzas, but was also hindered by three Caddo errors defensively.
Vaughn finished with three of the team’s five hits with Daniel and Powell notching one apiece.
Colbert Baseball
A Kevin Davis two-out RBI single in the bottom of the first inning cut into an early Dale 2-0 advantage but Colbert managed just four base runners the remainder of the contest all via walks in seeing its season close with a 22-10 record.
Second-ranked Dale meanwhile scored in each of the first five frames as the Leopards utilized five pitchers with Isaiah Lopez, Parker Ladd, Dalton Cummins, Cameron Nottingham and Ian Jordan all tossing at least one inning.
Calera Baseball
Riding the wave of a regional upset, Calera worked out of a scoreless first inning from pitcher Nathaniel Hallmark but could not manufacture any offense until the fifth stanza as the first eight Bulldogs were all retired by strikeout.
Silo, meanwhile, scored four in the second, one in the third and three in the fourth to take command.
Calera’s big offensive inning came in the fifth when Rayden Smith opened with a walk, Hoff Weil singled and both scored on a Matthew Sweeney one-out double. That however proved to be half of the Bulldogs’ four hits in the game with a single each by Aidan Reiber and Smith.