Panhandle Post by Jake Schrantz
The Bulldogs Softball program played two games to open the 2025 campaign on Friday, Aug. 22, in Holdrege, NE. Some early season mishaps and inconsistency with locating the strike zone proved a difficult hurdle as the team lost the first two games of the regular season to Hershey and Highway 6.
In game one of the season against the Hershey Panthers, the momentum looked like it was with Alliance to start. The Panthers were coming off a second-straight run-rule defeat to start their season - this time at the hands of the Highway 6 Trailblazers earlier in the evening.
The game started with some high-octane offense on display from both sides, as the Bulldogs struck first on the scoreboard. In the top of the first inning, Alliance brought in three runs to take a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the frame. However, Hershey found its offense for the first time this season, as they countered with four runs of their own. After one inning, the score read 4-3, with the Panthers enjoying a narrow lead.
The Bulldogs showed some good fight in the next two frames, scoring one run in each. Defensively, Alliance hunkered down as well, keeping Hershey scoreless for three consecutive innings. Ellie Smith showed out in multiple ways in this portion of the game. As the starting pitcher, she locked down the Panthers after their high-scoring first inning. Then at the plate on offense, the senior smacked a triple that brought Regan Cornish home in the top of the second.
After some long at-bats, the fifth inning ended up being the conclusion of the season opener for Alliance, as Hershey took the lead 7-to-5. Then, with a time limit at hand, the game was wrapped up with Alliance on the losing end to start the season by a final score of 7-5. Overall, the Bulldogs took advantage of six Hershey errors in this one, and scored five runs on only three hits as a team. Bailey Reza and Hannah Benzel both added their first base knocks of the season, with plenty of other Bulldogs reaching on errors.
After a tough finish to game one, it was time for the second game of the night, as the Bulldogs squared off with the Highway 6 Trailblazers. Fresh off scoring 10 runs earlier in the night, Highway 6 appeared to be a strong opponent for Alliance. However, it was the Bulldogs who started this one off in an impressive offensive showing.
A quick 2-0 score after the first inning saw the Bulldogs down going into the second. Then, the offense went off, as Alliance ripped off eight runs in the bottom of the second to hold an 8-2 advantage early in game two of the season. Six different Bulldogs recorded a hit against Highway 6, with Reza and Benzel making their presence felt again. They were joined by Maci Cornish, Kaiya Hudson, Regan Cornish and Lexi Lopez.
The Cornish duo had a massive impact on this game at the plate. Each of them drove in two runs, as they accounted for half of the Bulldogs' run production in game two.
Highway 6 did all the necessary damage in the third inning as a solid response to the Bulldogs dominance in the second. The Trailblazers scored a whopping 16 runs to take an 18-8 lead after three innings were gone. This concluded the game in a similar early fashion to the prior matchup for Alliance earlier in the night.
Some positives from the two losses included the Bulldogs' ability to find an offensive rhythm and score multiple runs in the same inning. Throughout the lineup, Alliance was able to find production from almost all of its bats in these first two games.
Going forward, errors made defensively will be a key issue to work on, as the Bulldogs look to right the ship over the next week. Alliance is in Lexington today for a tournament, before they play in Chadron on Tuesday, Aug. 23.