By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Cabot Lady Panthers fell twice after a long road trip to Baxter County on Wednesday. Playing a doubleheader originally scheduled for the day before, the Lady Panthers lost 4-0 and 7-4 to Mountain Home at Keller Park.
Cabot created a good scoring opportunity in the first inning but left two runners stranded in scoring position. That opened the door for Mountain Home, (12-7, 8-0) who got two runs in the first inning and one in the fourth and sixth innings.
After failing to score with runners on second and third with one out, the Lady Bombers got three hits in the bottom of the same inning to get the early lead. The Lady Panthers got runners in scoring position twice more in the game, but never got another opportunity like in the first inning.
It wasn’t for a lack of putting the ball in play. Cabot struck out only twice in the game, but couldn’t find the gaps and finished with just four base hits.
Conversely, Mountain Home got just five base hits, but three came with runners in scoring position for RBIs. The final Bomber run was the only one that wasn’t the result of an RBI base hit. It came after Lauren Adams tripled to start the sixth. She scored on a sacrifice grounder on the next at bat.
Kaitlyn Thompson took the loss on the mound, giving up five hits while striking out three Lady Bombers.
Mountain Home took a quick 4-0 lead in game two with one run in the first and three in the second inning. Cabot finally got a hit with a runner in scoring position in the third inning of game two. Thompson doubled and Heather Hill singled on the next at bat to drive in the run.
After another Mountain Home run in the fourth, Cabot got two in the fifth to make it 5-3.
Hill got her second RBI in the inning, this time driving in Taylor Anderson who had singled earlier. Hill scored on a sacrifice grounder and another groundout ended the Lady Panthers’ rally.
Mountain Home scored two unearned runs in the top of the seventh to make it 7-3. Cabot’s Hill got her third base hit and third RBI, this time driving in Lane Justus, but there was no further rally.
Cabot got 10 base hits in game two, but again left several runners stranded.
The Lady Panthers host a dual-site tournament today with the Beebe Badgers. Play begins at 10 a.m. with the Lady Panthers hosting Jonesboro-Westside on the bottom half of the bracket while Beebe hosts Dardanelle at BHS at the top.
Cabot’s side of the bracket also includes Farmington versus Nettleton while the top half features Trumann taking on Jacksonville.
The championship game will be played at 5:30 at Beebe while Cabot will host the final of the losers’ bracket at the same time.
