Ash Grove Lady Pirates fall in district semis, ending softball season. Pirates baseball team starts post season this week

The 2023 softball season has ended for the Ash Grove Lady Pirates after their 7-5 loss to Skyline in the semifinals of the Class 2, District 7 tournament in Fair Grove on Monday, May 8.
The team fell behind early, as Skyline plated a run in the bottom of the first inning and then broke through for five runs in the second inning to take a 6-0 lead. Skyline added another run in the bottom of the third to increase their lead to 7-0.
Ash Grove then settled down and did not allow another run the rest of the game. In the top of the seventh inning, the Lady Pirates tried to fight back, scoring five runs, highlighted by a Jamalyn Atkinson grand slam, but fell short losing 7-5.
Atkinson went 1-4 with a home run and four RBI's, Marissa Andrus finished 1-3 with an RBI and Meagan Hawkins took the loss, going six innings, allowing four earned runs.
“It was a tough loss, but we had a very good season,” said head coach Austin Tipton. “All of our 11 players made contributions to the team this year and I could not be prouder of each single one of them. We had six errors in the Skyline game, and it is tough to win games with that many errors. The girls fought and gave everything that they had to make a comeback, but just fell short. Chelsey Andrus, Nakayla Gray and Atkinson go but we wish them the best in the next chapter of their lives. We bring back a lot of the team next year and will add some new faces. I am looking forward to seeing what the team will do next season.”
Ash Grove finished the season with an overall record of 17-12.

Baseball
In baseball, the Class 2, No. 1 ranked Pirates did not play any games last week but were scheduled to be in action on Monday in the semifinals of the Class 2, District 12 tournament in Miller. The championship game was set for yesterday.

Golf
Ash Grove's Asher Rust and Brock Long were scheduled to play in the Class 1 state boys’ golf tournament at Columbia on Monday and yesterday.