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Lady Bears Fall to Buffalo In Semifinals of District Tournament

 Ava Lady Bears advanced to the semifinals of the Class 3 District 11 softball tournament last week, but that’s where the season would end.

After defeating Hollister 14-3 in first round action on Wednesday, the Ava girls, seeded second in the tournament, dropped a 4-3 decision to No. 3 Buffalo.

Ava got off to a shaky start, giving up all four Buffalo runs in the first two innings. The big blow was a two-run home run by Ariel Elia in the second inning.

Ava battled back with single runs in the first, second and fifth innings, but could get no closer than the one-run deficit that would be the final score.

Ava got only four hits off Buffalo pitcher Jordan Shewmaker who also walked nobody. The Buffalo defense committed five errors in the game, however.

Getting one hit each for the Lady Bears were Lakota Blakey, Kayte Aid, Jacey Swofford and Tailer Stofer.  Hannah Johnson scored twice for Ava and courtesy runner Ashley Helm plated one run.

Aid had two runs batted in for Ava.

Ava had nine hits in the Hollister game on Wednesday and had nine more batters reach on walks. Hollister also committed 11 errors in the game to allow the Ava girls to circle the bases freely.

Catcher Swofford was 2-for-3 at the plate with two doubles, and had four RBIs on the day and also scored two runs.

Callie Eubanks was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored and Johnson scored three times for Ava.

Blakey was 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored.

The Lady Bears, which were 12-2 entering the last week of the season, finished at 14-8 overall and 5-1 in the SCA, tied with Salem for the conference title.

Top seed Bolivar defeated Buffalo 3-2 on Saturday to take the district championship.