Nederland wraps up No. 1 seed; playoffs set

By Gabriel Pruett
The News sports writer
The Nederland Lady Bulldogs and Port Neches-Groves Lady Indians could not have found a better warm-up game for this week’s playoff games.
Nederland defeated PN-G 5-1 Tuesday in a game that broke a first-place tie in District 22-5A. The two teams still share the district championship.
The Lady Bulldogs (24-9) now face Dayton in a one-game playoff at 6 p.m. Thursday at Nederland. PN-G (21-8) faces Kingwood Park in a three-game series starting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Kingwood Park. Game 2 of the series is at 5:30 p.m. Friday at PN-G with Game 3 to follow 30 minutes after if needed.
Nederland took advantage of six PN-G errors on Tuesday and used a five-run fourth inning to get by the Lady Indians.
The big hit came off the bat of freshman Lexi Eversole. She smashed a two-run homer off PN-G starter Britni Hunt to give Nederland a 2-1 lead in the fourth.
PN-G had two more errors in the inning, and then first baseman Bailey Beard came up and roped a two-run double to score both Destini Trahan and Hannah Smith to give Nederland a 4-1 lead.
Hannah Goode scored the last run of the inning and game when Amanda Longlet reached on a PN-G throwing error.
“It was intense and it was a playoff environment,” Nederland coach Will Mallette said. “This game is only going to help us as a program.”
Nederland’s Madyson Guidry threw a complete game for the Lady Bulldogs. She struck out eight batters and allowed five hits. The one PN-G was unearned.
PN-G got on the board quickly with a run in the first inning.
Lady Indians catcher Kaitlyn Boudreaux led off the game by getting hit by a pitch, the first of two times she was plunked in the game.
Boudreaux then moved to second on a ground out by Rachel Hammersmith and then she was able to swipe third.
Avery Hooks picked up a RBI with a sacrifice fly that gave Boudreaux plenty of time to score to give the Lady Indians a 1-0 lead.
The Lady Indians’ pitching duo of Hunt and Alexis LaBure combined to strike out 11 Lady Bulldogs batters. Hunt threw 3 1/3 innings and allowed one hit with five strikeouts. She allowed three runs, two earned.
LaBure pitched the final 2 2/3 innings and gave up two runs on two hits with six strikeouts. The two runs LaBure gave up were unearned.
Nederland shortstop Lindsey Taylor had the third hit for the Lady Bulldogs.
LaBure finished 2 for 3 at the plate and was the only player on both teams with multiple hits.
“Our team has been resilient,” Mallette said. “We know we are going to see adversity and we saw adversity in this game. They are mentally tough and they are ready for the playoffs.”