Lady Aggies fall to hot-hitting Stanley in quarterfinals
Photo by Josh McDaniel
The No. 6 seed Stanley Lady Panthers didn't forget their bats on the way to No. 3 Choudrant for the Division V nonselect quarterfinal, with Stanley knocking off the Lady Aggies 10-1 Friday to advance to the LHSAA state softball tournament.
Choudrant's season ends at 19-6 overall with the loss.
Stanley, who finished with 13 hits, led the entire game, starting with a two-run home run in the first inning from sophomore Jade Jones. Choudrant answered quickly, seemingly signaling it was ready for a blow-for-blow slugfest with Addison Worley's RBI single bringing home Zoey Smith after her two-out triple to make it 2-1.
But from there, Stanley never looked back with eight unanswered runs and allowed only two Choudrant hits the rest of the game.
Stanley put its foot down with a two-run second inning off an outfield error by Choudrant before plating three more runs in the fourth on a pair of RBI doubles for a 7-1 lead. The damage was capped off in the fifth when Jones blasted her second home run of the night - this time a three-run shot - to deep center for a 10-1 lead with two outs.
"We knew it was going to be a scoring game, that's what we had talked about. We hit some, but they made every defensive play. They made the defensive plays. We didn't play bad defensively but they out-hit us. We knew they were good," Choudrant head coach Wayne Antley said postgame.
Choudrant got hits from Smith (2-2), Worley (1-3, 1 RBI), and Kylie Willis (1-3) on the night.
Antley said the loss stings for the program, knowing his group wanted to repeat history and return to state for a second-straight season. The silver lining is, most of the Lady Aggies will be back for 2025 and ready to compete once again.
"I think they know what it takes. We're losing one starter (Piper Bowen) so we've got most of them coming back," Antley said. "Six juniors. Next year, hopefully we'll be ready."
Next season, Choudrant will return starting pitcher Holly Bennett, catcher Zoey Smith, second baseman BG Weaver, shortstop Addison Worley, third baseman Emma Boggs, right fielder Kelsee Guillotte, center fielder Kylie Willis, and right fielder Ivy Collingsworth.
