Lady Blue Devils Pick Up Two Home Wins

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  • Paige Canterberry hauls in a high pitch and checks the runner at third base against Blair. Bob Henline | The Cordell Beacon.
    Paige Canterberry hauls in a high pitch and checks the runner at third base against Blair. Bob Henline | The Cordell Beacon.
  • Kamdyn Davis snags a short fly ball at third base. Bob Henline | The Cordell Beacon.
    Kamdyn Davis snags a short fly ball at third base. Bob Henline | The Cordell Beacon.
  • Makenzie Hougland goes to the dirt to make a key stop against Blair. Bob Henline | The Cordell Beacon.
    Makenzie Hougland goes to the dirt to make a key stop against Blair. Bob Henline | The Cordell Beacon.
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The Cordell Lady Blue Devils had a great week on the softball diamond, picking up wins against Olustee and Blair.

In Monday’s outing, Cordell’s girls looked to be in a bit of trouble, but managed to come back and defeat visiting Olustee 7-6.

Head coach Bobby Blackburn highlighted the play of his infielders in the win.

“Andrea (Palmer) is becoming more consistent and fields her position as well as any pitcher you’ll find,” he said. “Makenzie Hougland continues to impress at shortstop, she made a great play in the last inning to stop any threat.”

Blackburn had to make a few adjustments to his infield line-up. Abby Priebe, who usually plays first base, was out with an injury, but third base Kamdyn Davis was back from dental surgery. Davis returned to third base and Kara Dowell moved to first in place of Priebe.

“Kamdyn came back from dental surgery and immediately made an impact,” Blackburn said. “She just lifted us with her play as well as leadership. It’s nice having her back anchoring the infield at third base and swinging a hot bat. We’ve moved Kara Dowell around and she has responded well. She’s now at first base and really stepping up for us. She has made some nice grabs over there.”

Tuesday saw the Broncs of Blair come to Cordell, with the Lady Blue Devils stepping up in a big way to shut them down with a run-rule win after four innings, taking the 10-2 victory.

Before the game started, Blackburn told his players to focus and not give their opponents extra runs or outs by making mistakes. He told the girls every dropped ball or missed play in the field gives the other team an extra out in the inning, an extra chance to score runs, and those extras make the difference between winning and losing.

Blackburn said his girls played as good of defense as they’ve played in quite some time.

“After trailing 2-0 the girls started putting everything together,” he said. “This game was probably the best defense we’ve played in a very long time. We had a couple of hiccups early on, but overcame them. We’ve been talking about not letting the wheels come off and tonight we didn’t let that happen. Andrea, Kamdyn, and Paige Canterberry all hit singles. The big blow came when Evan Anderson drove a hard line drive into the gap to score three for our first lead of the game. We’ve been waiting for Evan to come around at the plate, but she just hasn’t been comfortable. Well, she is now.”

With more exceptional defensive play from the infield, the Lady Blue Devils managed to shut down Blair after taking the lead and then ran the score up to 10-2 to end the game after four.