PREP SOFTBALL ROUNDUP : Hustle Gives Loara Edge on El Dorado

Loara’s Gina Bird beat out a ground ball deep to shortstop to drive in the run that gave the Saxons a 3-2 victory over El Dorado in an Empire League softball game Thursday at Loara.

Bird’s hustle with two outs in the bottom of the seventh allowed Loara (15-7, 4-4 in league) to take sole possession of third place as competition for a spot in the Southern Section playoffs heats up. El Dorado (12-8, 3-5) dropped to fourth.

“(Bird’s) the one I would up want up in a situation like that,” Loara Coach Vicky Larson said. “She’s a pressure player that’s going to come through, and she did.”

Loara put itself in position to win after pitcher Laura Blain reached first base when El Dorado second baseman Roxanna McManus was unable to catch to a wind-blown pop fly.

Pinch-hitter Dawn White laid down a bunt in front of home plate and reached first when first baseman Heather Hamer overthrew McManus covering first. Pinch-runner Venessa McNeal reached third.

After McNeal was thrown out at home on Kathy Shirley’s ground ball to third, Bird drove in White with the winning run.

After yielding a pair of run-scoring singles to El Dorado’s Linsey Bishop in the first and third, Blain (5-0) settled down and shut out the Golden Hawks the last four innings. Blain gave up three hits, struck out two and walked three.