In their busiest week ever, the Lady Dragon softball team has kept their winning streak as they advanced their record to 15-0-1.  Hosting a midweek game against Soda Springs and their annual Scott Ray Tournament over the weekend, plus a Monday afternoon game at Declo, Malad has strung together six games over the last seven days.  Their games ran the gamut of easy wins to the toughest games they had played this season.

The Lady Dragons made quick work out of the Cardinals as they played Wednesday, April 23, winning in just 5 innings.  In the bottom of the opening inning, Malad stacked up an impressive ten runs to take a commanding lead.

Riglee Peterson started the scoring with a home run to left field, batting in Teagan Daniels on second base.  Seniors Halley Horsley, Adley Kimberling and Kaitlyn Pickett followed with double baggers to eventually put them up 5-0.  Brylee Oglesbee walked on base, scoring as Liddia Gonzalez hit a single line drive to center field.  Bostyn Combs batted in Gonzalez for run number seven for the Lady Dragons with a ground ball to shortstop with Daniels putting up another base hit.  Peterson, next at the plate, singled on a line drive to center field to bat in Combs and Daniels.  Horsley finished out the scoring for the inning with a triple to right field to send Peterson in, making the score 10-0.

Malad’s defense kept Soda Springs scoreless in the first two innings before allowing four runs in the third inning, bringing the score 12-4.  In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Lady Dragons added another five runs to their score, brought by a triple from Gonzalez, a single by Chloe Udy, a grounder by Anistyn Tovey, and a homer by Horsley.  

After the win against the Cardinals, the Lady Dragons hosted their annual Scott Ray tournament, a two day event held in honor of the long time Malad Softball coach.  The first game of the tournament for the Lady Dragons went up against the 2023 2A runner up, the Declo Hornets, a team that they played twice in the state tournaments.  Like Malad, Declo came back strong for the 2024 season, graduating only their pitcher.  With a new, strong pitcher, experience and talent, the Hornets proved to be a difficult opponent.

The Lady Dragons allowed only one hit in the opening inning, getting outs by Horsley on first base off the assist from Shulz at shortstop, another out at first on a dropped third strike, and a strikeout by pitcher Peterson.  Unfortunately, the Hornets snagged a run in the second inning off a home run, taking a lead they would hold onto until the bottom of the fifth inning.  They extended their lead in the fourth inning with another three runs and capped it off in the fifth inning with four more to extend their lead to 8-0.

Struggling to convert hits to runs, the Lady Dragons found themselves down, and while they were frustrated they certainly didn’t count themselves out as they started into the bottom of what would be the final inning.  Despite previous plate appearances ending in strikeouts or caught fly balls, Malad went to the plate with determination and focus, to pull out enough runs to tie the game.

First to bat in the lineup in the inning was Kimberling, hitting a single line drive to center field with a full count, a hit that single handedly changed the momentum of the game.  Daniels stepped up next with another single to right field, sending Kimberling around to third base.  Logan Maroney followed with another big outfield hit to bat in Kimberling for their first run of the game.

Finally hitting and making their way around the bases, the Lady Dragons began to settle into their groove.  Fortunately, next in the line was Malad’s batter with the highest on base percentage, Pickett.  With runners on second and third, Pickett slammed a hit over the fence to score three runs, bringing them to within four.

Oglesbee, another clinch hitter for Malad, hit a double to center field on her second pitch with Combs getting walked on base.  Schulz, next to bat, smacked a fly ball to right field, sending Oglesbee across home plate for another Lady Dragon score.  Combs followed with another score as Peterson hit a grounder to shortstop, unfortunately getting their first out of the inning.  

Undeterred, Malad didn’t let the out stop their momentum.  Watching closely from third base, Shulze found the opening she needed for a run, scoring for the Lady Dragons on a wild Declo pitch to make it 7-8.  Three plays later, Horsley put up a final run to tie the game, scoring as Maroney singled to left field.  Tied at 8 in after five innings, the game timed out according to the tournament rules.  It wasn’t how the Lady Dragons hoped to end the game, but with the tie they kept their undefeated streak alive.

With their toughest game of the tournament behind them, Malad dominated their remaining games of the weekend.  Next on their docket after Declo were the North Fremont Huskies, a team they could potentially see at the state tournament.  After both teams went scoreless in the opening inning, it was the Huskies that jumped to the lead after the second, going 0-2.  But the Lady Dragon defense shut down any further scoring opportunities and began finding some for themselves.  

Shulz and Oglesbee put up two runs in quick succession in the bottom of the third as slap hitter Hadley Summers hit a grounder to second base.  Down the order two, Peterson hit a double-bagger to bat in Summers.  Hitting a sacrifice fly, Pickett punched in Daniels at third and Gonzalez at first, courtesy runner for Peterson, to put Malad up 5-2.  

Over the last two innings, the Lady Dragons extended their lead to 9-2 as the game was called after the first half of the sixth inning.  Horsley led from behind the plate, putting up a homerun on 3 hits, batting in 2.  

Peterson took to the mound against the Huskies, allowing only 2 runs on 6 hits over 6 innings, walking 1 and striking out 8.  Catcher Maroney led with putouts, tallying 8 with Horsley at first base adding another 4.  Peterson and Shulz both counted up 2 assists.

Saturday the Lady Dragons took on teams from West Jefferson and Green Canyon, allowing only a single run in both games.  Slugger Horsley put another hit over the fence to help lead her team to the 16-1 win over West Jefferson.  But it was a strong batting game all around as Combs, Daniels, Peterson, Kimberling, Maroney, Oglesbee and Shulz put up scoring runs.

With a final win against Green Canyon, 14-1, Malad closed out their undefeated weekend.  Over the four games, the team tallied up 87 at bats, 47 runs on 31 hits and only 12 strikeouts in 21 innings.  The pitching crew of Peterson, Gonzalez and Combs faced 88 batters, threw a combined 325 pitches over 19 innings.  Their opponents batting average was a dismal 0.244.

Taking only a single rest day, Malad hit the road to go up against Declo for a second go, this time on their home field on Monday, April 22.  In an incredible turn of events, the Lady Dragons did nothing but outplay the Hornets as they put up 20 runs to their 8.

Unlike their previous game, the MHS team started putting up runs in the opening innings, going 10-0 in the bottom of the second.  Both teams went without a run in the third inning before Malad added another four in the fourth.  Attempting to come back, Declo had a strong run in the bottom of the fourth as they grabbed six runs of their own.  But the Lady Dragons answered with another six runs to put their total to 20.  Their defense held the Hornets to only two runs in the final innings before Horsley grabbed their final out on a caught pop fly in foul territory.

Speaking of their week full of games, Head Coach Bri Adams said, “We haven’t been super focused as we have played at home lately and that caught up with us when we played Declo Friday morning.  In the last inning we could see the girls were frustrated but they didn’t give up and I was super proud.  I reminded them that we had come back from being down and scored 8+ runs in an inning before.  They just had to believe.”

When it came to their second matchup, Coach Adams reminded them of those fundamentals that make for great hitting. “I told them to find the ball at the pitcher’s hip, focus on the seams and spin of the ball and then go after it.”  That must have been just the words the needed to hear for such a change up against the impressive Hornet pitcher.

The Lady Dragon softball schedule is beginning to wind down, but only slightly.  This week they look to play district opponents at Bear Lake on Wednesday, April 24 and West Side on Friday, April 26.  They will close out the week with a double header at home against