Blooming Grove softball team celebrates with cookie

Courtesy photo

Blooming Grove's girls celebrate after taking second-place in the 27-team Franklin Tournament. Yes, that's a giant cookie they are holding. According to coach Keith Ryno they devoured almost all of it in "about 10 minutes."

There's no word on whether there will be pastry involved at Crawford, where the Lady Lions play in their next tournament this weekend.

The Blooming Grove girls got a late start to softball season  because of the success of the basketball team, which had four starters who are softball stars.

But the Lady Lions are wasting no time making a name for themselves on the diamond. They battled their way into the championship game of the prestigious 27-team Franklin Tournament this weekend and took home second place.

The long drive to Franklin didn't slow down Keith Ryno's kids, who had a 14-hour day on Thursday, and still kept winning until they simply ran out of pitching on Saturday.

We went 4-1, beating bigger schools such as Class 5A Bryan Rudder (8-0) and Class 4A Salado (8-4) and Class 3A powers White Oak (3-0) and Rogers (4-2) before losing to 4A Caldwell in the Gold Bracket title game.

Tatum Briggs got all four victories on the mound. Briggs allowed just two earned runs and struck out 24 batters over 21 innings while walking only five.

Several players came through at the plate against tough pitching.

Madison Peterson hit .583, drove in three runs and scored five, and Macie Skains hit .400, scored six runs and drove in three. Tatum Briggs hit .455, drove in four runs and scored three, and her younger sister Reece Briggs hit .400 with three RBIs while scoring three runs. Kasey Fisher hit a whopping .500, drove in three runs and scored twice and Riley Skains hit .455 and drove in three runs.

Ryno was happy with every kid in the lineup.
"Madison Peterson and Macie Skains did a great job at the top of our lineup to get on and allow our middle to drive them in," said Ryno, who turned the program around last year and led his kids to the third round of the playoffs.
 
"We had quality at-bats 1 through 9," he said. "Tatum pitched a great tournament and we played defense well behind her. We beat some quality playoff teams and overall it was a great tournament for these young ladies. We have Teague on Tuesday and then we go to Crawford for a tournament next weekend. We're looking to keep building on what we have and are excited for what is ahead."
 

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