Ellis County Sports Your source for Ellis County Sports News
By Travis Smith |ECS
The Waxahachie Lady Indian softball team finished one of its most successful regular seasons in program history with a 16-0 drubbing of Dallas Skyline this past Friday.
Under first-year head coach and alumna Ariel Raney, Waxahachie now boasts a 26-7 overall mark, having also collected 11 wins to 3 losses to finish second in a stacked District 11-6A — which marked their highest-ever seeding in Class 6A.
Waxahachie enters the postseason as the second seed in 11-6A. They trail only 6A No. 1 (32-0, 14-0) Mansfield Lake Ridge, who they fell to twice (9-3, 9-1).
The lone other district loss came against (22-9-1, 9-5) Mansfield, 11-5, on March 20.
The Lady Indians later secured their “revenge win” behind a Kylee Raney gem inside the circle on Friday, April 14. The senior struck out three, walked 3 and gave up just 2 earned runs on 7 hits during her 4-2 complete-game win.
Raney (16-4, 2,65 ERA), Nalee Nichols (10-2, 1.73 ERA) and the Lady Indian defense have allowed 2 runs or fewer in 7-of-their-past-8 games.
Raney, a senior, is the clear No. 1 inside the circle for the Lady Indians this season. She’s compiled 169 strikeouts to 79 walks with 51 earned runs over 134.2 IP (26 games, 23 starts). The freshman Nichols has also fared extremely well over her 48.1 IP, recording 46 punchouts to 9 walks with just 12 earned runs.
At the plate, the Lady Indians are led by:
- senior Kadin Vire (.446, 2HR, 8 3B, 35 RBIs, 39R). Vire has signed with the University of Missouri – Kansas City. She was also chosen as the WFAA Scholar-Athlete of the Week, which will air at 10:45 p.m. Sunday, April 30.
- junior Bryten Burns (.406, HR, 5 2B, 4 3B, 23 RBIs, 37R). Burns is a University of North Carolina commit.
- senior Molly Gilbert (.388, 6 2B, 3 3B, HR, 21 RBIs, 35R). Gilbert has committed to Washburn University.
- sophomore Brynne Grammer (.377, 6 2B, HR, 24 RBIs, 13R).
Waxahachie will look to roll that momentum into a bi-district matchup against (10-12-1) Copperas Cove. The one-game, winner-takes-all bi-district playoff game is set for 7 pm.
Friday at West High School.
The Lady Bulldawgs finished third in District 12
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Travis M. Smith/@Travis5mith
tsmith@elliscosports.com
