Lady Spartans historic season ends with Regional Finals loss
Lady Spartans historic season ends with Regional Finals loss
Reaching the Regional Finals for first time in program history in Coach Mullin's first year, the Lady Spartans were swept by Aledo with Thursday's game-two loss
BURLESON – The Centennial Lady Spartans varsity softball team’s historic playoff run ended with a 10-7 loss to the Aledo Lady Bearcats in game-two of the Regional Finals Thursday at Spartan Softball Field.
This was the first Regional Finals appearance in Centennial Softball history in head coach Natalie Mullin’s first year at the helm.
After the game, Mullin said she hopes the team continues to build on the legacy built by the seniors this year.
“We started completely over with everything–our standards, our vision–and it was from these seniors,” Mullin said. “So we just hope that they carry on and keep staying humble, keep fighting, persevering and everything.”
Mullin said the crowd–packed with players’ family and Centennial staff and students who came out to support the historic Lady Spartans on the first day of summer vacation–was huge for the team.
“That’s what we ask for is a community,” Mullin said. “Regardless of if you’re on the other side or not, just come support. This is the furthest we’ve ever gone against a very good team, and they’ve always been well known for bringing their entire community, and so it was really awesome for Burleson to show up today.”
After taking a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second, the Lady Spartans were outscored 7-0 before rallying and scoring five runs–including a three-run shot to left from junior catcher Madelyn Hickey–to cut Aledo’s lead to 8-7 in the bottom of the sixth.
With four of Centennial’s five runs in the sixth coming with Aledo senior Brenlee Gonzales–who pitched a complete-game shutout in game-one–Mullin said the team made adjustments for her but it was too late. She said Gonzales can bring it.
Aledo then hit three homers and scored five runs–capped off by senior shortstop Liliana Flores’s two-run shot–to increase its lead to 12-7 in the top of the seventh.
Flores went 3-for-5 with the two-run home run and a pair of RBI doubles as she led the game with four RBIs and three runs scored.
Aledo junior starting-pitcher Taylor McKean went 2-for-3 at the plate with a solo home run and an RBI single and earned the win in the circle as she surrendered five earned runs off five hits and two walks and struck out five batters over five and 2/3 innings pitched.
McKean’s homer was the second of back-to-back solo shots from her and senior catcher Kennis Marx to increase Aledo’s lead to 10-7 in the top of the seventh inning.
Marx went 2-for-4 with a solo home run.
After the first three Centennial batters reached base to start the bottom of the sixth, freshman pitcher and outfielder Ava Ellis hit an RBI single to left to cut Aledo’s lead to 8-3.
Ellis went 1-for-3 with the RBI single. Relieving senior starting-pitcher Bailey Lindemuth in the circle in the fourth, Ellis surrendered six earned runs off five hits with three strikeouts over three innings pitched.
The next batter Hickey blasted a three-run bomb to left to cut the lead to 8-6.
Hickey went 1-for-3 with the home run.
The Lady Spartans came within one run as junior right-fielder Rylee Brown hit an RBI single to right to bring the score to 8-7 in the bottom of the sixth.
Brown went 1-for-2 with the RBI single.
Following Centennial’s rally, Aledo’s Marx and McKean hit back-to-back solo shots to lead off the top of the seventh and increase the lead to 10-7.
Aledo junior right-fielder Addie Perry homered to left on the first at-bat of the game, giving Aledo an early 1-0 lead. Her RBI single to bring the score to 3-2 in the top of the second gave Aledo a lead they’d never give up.
Perry went 3-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored.
After Perry’s lead-off home run, Lindemuth blasted a lead-off homer of her own to left in her first at-bat to tie the game 1-1 in the bottom of the first.
Lindemuth went 2-for-4 with the home run. Starting in the circle for the second consecutive night–after pitching her sixth complete game of the 2024 playoffs in the 2-0 game-one loss Wednesday in Aledo–Lindemuth surrendered six earned runs off 10 hits and two walks and struck out four batters over four innings pitched. She relieved Ellis in the seventh after Ellis relieved her in the fourth.
Senior third-baseman Hannah McCurry doubled to left to bring home senior outfielder Olivia Martin and give the Lady Spartans a 2-1 lead –its only lead of the game– in the bottom of the first.
McCurry went 1-for-3 with the RBI double. Martin went 1-for-3 with a walk and a team-high two runs scored.
Centennial’s lead was short-lived as Aledo’s McKean hit an RBI single down the left-field line to tie the game 2-2 in the top of the second.
Aledo took a 3-2 lead on Perry’s RBI single to center and didn’t look back–scoring in each inning except the fifth–until Centennial’s big sixth inning.
This was the final high-school softball game for seniors Lindemuth, McCurry and Martin.
Expected to return for the Lady Spartans in 2025 will be juniors Hickey, Brown, Cheyenne Bruner, Alyssa Mayner, Ryanne Stephens, Madison Haynes and Kaitlyn Hairell, sophomores Lexie Arthur, Carly Reed, Kaelyn Weldon and Aniya Ragland and freshmen Ellis, Emma Colson and Karsyn Brown.