Pantherettes pound Copperas Cove 21-1 in battle for 12-6A lead

COPPERAS COVE — It didn’t take long for the better softball team to emerge in a matchup between the Waco Midway Pantherettes and the Copperas Cove Lady Bulldawgs Friday evening.

Only two pitches into the game, the Pantherettes started a hit parade that led to a 21-1 rout of the Lady Bulldawgs, a game that ended after four innings due to the run rule.

Copperas Cove’s lone run came in the bottom of the first when Brenna Butler scored on an error by Midway shortstop Ali Jones.

With Butler on second base following a double — one of Cove’s two hits in the game — Larisa Perez hit a hard grounder to Jones, who let it sneak past her into left field. The defensive miscue for Midway allowed Butler to come around third and score.

After that, it was nothing doing for the Lady Bulldawgs, whose only other hit came in the final frame, a leadoff single by pinch hitter Taylor Trimm.

Trimm was erased from the basepath moments later, the first of a double-play hit by Laila LaCapra.

The Lady Bulldawgs recorded four strikeouts and had a total of eight baserunners in the game.

Defensively, Copperas Cove used three pitchers — Trinity Zavala, Alejandra Espinoza and Perez — but the Pantherettes tagged them all. Aided by some Lady Bulldawg miscues, the Pantherettes scored eight against Zavala, five against Espinoza and eight against Perez.

Midway smacked 15 hits, including three home runs — two by Tristian Thompson and one by Jayden Sadler.

12-6A SOFTBALL

Waco Midway 4-0

Copperas Cove 2-1

Harker Heights 2-1

Bryan 1-2

Hutto 1-2

Pflugerville Weiss 1-3

Temple 1-3

WEDNESDAY'S GAMES

• Hutto 10, Temple 3
• Pflugerville Weiss 7, Bryan 6

FRIDAY'S GAME

• Waco Midway 21, Copperas Cove 1, 4 innings