Lady 'Birds one win away from celebrating
By KRIS BAGLEY sports@leader-news.com

L-N Photo by Kris Bagley Turn Two? El Campo shortstop Brittney Oates tags second base and looks for the double play at first base against Seven Lakes Tuesday.

Post-season celebrations were put on hold Tuesday as the Lady 'Birds lost a surprising game to Seven Lakes.

A win would have put El Campo's softball team in the playoffs, but the 3-0 loss means the team still has one win to go.

"We sure did pick the wrong time to hit a slump," Shane Wagner, head coach of the Lady 'Birds, said. "We're going to just stay focused and do what we do."

El Campo hosted Lamar Consolidated Friday night. Wagner said he was hoping his team's offensive woes are over by then.

"Hopefully, the ball starts looking like a volleyball and we start hitting it," he said. "We're going to work on the little stuff and hopefully, it comes up and we start swinging the bats well again."

El Campo struggled to hit the ball into the outfield against Seven Lakes, but it wasn't for lack of contact. Several Lady 'Birds hit the ball, but instead of falling in the gaps like earlier in the season, hits went straight to the Spartan defenders.

While the Lady 'Birds were trying to find their swing, the Spartans earned three runs in the top of the third inning. Seven Lakes held off El Campo for the rest of the game.

The Spartans held El Campo to two hits and kept the Lady 'Birds hitless in the final five innings, for a 3-0 win.

To combat the hitting problems, Wagner switched his practice style. Instead of spending half of the time on hitting Wednesday, the Lady 'Birds put most of their focus on the bats.

"I'd say we usually do about 50-50," Wagner said. "It was about 80-20 offense (Wednesday). We did mostly hitting to see if we could get some of the kinks worked out since we are falling into a slump. Slumps happen. We've just got to hope that we come out of it. It's up to the girls now."

Wagner said El Campo's offensive slump seems long, but that is deceiving. The Lady 'Birds had a tough time hitting against Foster, but stayed com- petitive against the Lady Falcons the entire game.

Considering Foster's high state ranking and quality pitching, Wagner said he sees Tuesday's game with the Spartans as an isolated performance.

"We played well against Foster and lost to a very good team," the coach said. "We didn't hit the ball well against Katy, but that's just one game. We're not going to, because of one game, put anything into a panic mode just yet.

"We just happened to hit a stretch where, at once our balls were finding the gaps and now they're not. We're just going to keep doing what we're doing. There's no reason to panic right now."

Wagner has confidence in his seniors. He expects them to pick up their teammates and push for the playoffs.

"My seniors are a great group of leaders," Wagner said. "We've had some girls that want to put their heads down, but the seniors won't let them. Keep it up, lets get this and run because we're still a good team. We had a bad game, but we're still a good team."

Wagner knows if his team can work out their struggles and catch fire, they could go a long way in the playoffs.

"We wanted to be district champs," Wagner said. "It didn't happen, but the big thing is to get into the playoffs. When you get into the playoffs, anything can happen. We still believe in our hearts and know that we can make a good run at this."

LADY 'BIRD STATS

	R	H	E
El Campo	0	2	0
Seven Lakes	3	4	0

	1 2 3 4 5 6 7
SL	0	0	3	0	0	0 0
EC	0	0	0	0	0	0 0

EC Pitching
Emily Bergstrom - 7 innings, 4
hits, 3 earned runs, 5 strikeouts
EC Hitting
Anna Raun - 1 hit (single)
Lauralee Collins - 1 hit (single)