ALTON – The Houston softball team is moving forward in the postseason.
The No. 4 Lady Tigers jumped ahead early and despite a shaky finish, easily beat fifth-seeded Mountain View-Liberty 10-4 in Wednesday’s opening round of the Class 2 District 8 tournament.
“We survived to the next round,” HHS coach Brent Hall said. “It doesn’t matter how good or bad you play in districts, you just want to get to the next game.”
Now comes a matchup with top-seeded Willow Springs, which received a first-round bye. The game, which begins at 2 p.m., is the first of two semifinals on Thursday. Second-seeded Neelyville plays No. 6 Alton at 4 p.m.
Willow Springs beat HHS 13-4 last week, but six of those runs came in the final inning and the Lady Tigers committed eight errors.
“We played with them for six innings,” Hall said. “We’ll go out there and see what happens. You never know.”
Autumn Walker, Taylor Chipps and Madison Lawson knocked in two runs apiece in Houston’s district-opening victory. Stephani Crewse had three hits while Chipps, Lawson and Shelby Cremer had two apiece.
Sophomore Carly Crawford gave up six hits and four runs – two earned – in the complete-game victory. She struck out three and walked seven.
Crawford, who took over the team’s pitching duties late in the season, improved to 6-5 on the mound.
“She struggled a little bit early, but she figured it out,” Hall said. “Her throwing strikes has been a big bonus for us and kept us in games.”
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the second, Houston pulled ahead on Lawson’s two-out, two run single. Cremer followed with a RBI single to make it 3-1.
Root tripled to score Crewse in the third, and Slocum’s RBI hit put the Lady Tigers in front 5-1.
Walker’s RBI double made it a five-run cushion and the lead swelled to 7-1 entering the fifth. HHS built a 10-1 lead on Chipp’s two-run single in the fifth.
Despite the easy win, Hall said he wanted to see his team finishLiberty.
“We couldn’t get the one or two runs to put them away,” he said. “I told them after the game that if we do that against Willow, they will take advantage of it.”
BOX SCORE
Liberty 010 000 3 – 4 6 4
Houston 032 230 x – 10 13 1
HOUSTON (ab-r-h-bi) – Autumn Walker 5-2-1-2. Taylor Chipps 4-0-2-2. Stephani Crewse 4-1-3-1. Tori McCloud 4-1-1-0. Kaitlyn Root 4-1-1-1. Aryanna Morgan 1-1-0-0. Abbey Slocum 3-0-1-0. Carly Crawford 3-0-0-0. Madison Lawson 2-3-2-2. Shelby Cremer 4-1-2-1. Totals 34-10-13-10.
2B: Walker. 3B: Crewse. SB: Morgan. CS: Crewse.
Winning pitcher: Carly Crawford. Houston center fielder Tori McCloud makes a diving catch in the first inning Wednesday.
Wednesday’s scores
Houston 10, Liberty 4
Alton 5, East Carter 4
Thursday’s games
(1) Willow Springs (15-4) vs. (4) Houston (10-13), 2 p.m.
(2) Neelyville (12-10-1) vs. Alton (7-14), 4 p.m.
Friday’s game
Championship, 4 p.m.