Softball: Basalt loses close contest with Rifle
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times |
Saturday’s home loss to Class 4A Rifle doesn’t hurt the Basalt High School softball team, but it was certainly a missed opportunity for the Longhorns.
“They got us by a run, but really they didn’t get us. We beat ourselves with errors,” Basalt coach Marianne Gardner-Smith said. “We came back and tied them and then on a bad error, they scored and we just couldn’t get it back.”
Rifle (14-4 overall) used early mistakes by the Longhorns to take a commanding 7-3 lead after four and a half innings. Basalt rallied, however, scoring four runs in the sixth inning only to eventually fall in eight innings, losing 9-8.
The loss snapped a 10-game winning streak for Basalt.
“We settled in and we played with them. If we didn’t have those first two innings, we beat them,” Gardner-Smith said. “If they come to play and they play like Longhorns can play, they can play with anybody. I’m not worried about that. The errors are what gets us.”
Basalt (13-2 overall) will host Delta (9-7) at 4 p.m. Tuesday in a crucial league game. The Longhorns beat the Panthers in their season opener, 11-8, in Delta.
“It doesn’t hurt us as far as our standings because they are out of our league,” Gardner-Smith said of Saturday’s loss to Rifle. “If we win Tuesday, we go in as No. 1, so that is what we are looking for.”
Tuesday’s game with Delta will be homecoming for Basalt.
Also Saturday, the Aspen High School softball team fell twice in a home doubleheader with Montezuma-Cortez. Scores were 22-9 and 17-6. The Skiers next host Meeker at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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