Lady Raiders drop openers

The Lady Raider softball team opened the season at home Saturday to two losses.

“It was a tough day for the Lady Raiders,” Head Coach Jamie Lezard said. “We had too many errors, left too many base runners out there, and were having a hard time finding the strike zone.” Lezard said both games against the Bridgeport Fillies ended in the third inning, due to the mercy rule.

The Fillies had an offensive edge on the Lady Raiders. In the first game, Lake Roosevelt scored 10 runs but gave up 21. In the second, the Fillies tallied up 18 to the Lady Raiders’ 3.

LR struggled on the mound.

“On the day, we had 20 base-on balls and four hit by pitches,” Lezard said, also noting that LR left 14 base runners on the base.

LR pitchers did strike out seven Fillies. Coach Lezard was frustrated with the amount of missed scoring opportunities.

Coach Lezard did see a good performance from a newcomer against the Fillies.

Lezard noted the performance of freshman Khani Priest, who “really shined with her athletic ability and knowledge of the game behind the plate. She went four for six at the plate for the day.”

Lezard said LR needs to “improve on finding the strike zone, not leaving so many base runners out on the base passes, and not have so many mental errors.”

“They just need to stay positive and focus on the next game,” he said.

Personnel will be an issue moving forward, as six Lady Raiders are either ineligible or injured.

“Due to the fact that we are missing so many girls, we had to shuffle a lot of girls around and put them in positions that they have never played before,” Lezard said.

Coming off two losses like that, the Lady Raiders are hungry for wins. And they’ll play at home for four more games this week. LR hosted 2-1 Liberty Bell last night. Tomorrow, LR hosts the winless Manson Trojans. On Saturday, the winless Oroville Hornets come to Grand Coulee for a doubleheader against the Lady Raiders starting at 11 a.m.