A young Beardstown Tiger softball team continues to struggle to field the ball on defense with an avalanche of errors leading to four losses last weekend in their own Lady Tiger Showcase at Rice and Jones Fields at Roy Roberts Park.
The Beardstown Junior High Track team hit the road to Rushville on a beautiful morning last Saturday and had a very successful day in an eight-team meet. The boys placed fifth in the seventh grade meet and fourth in the eighth grade meet for a fourth-place combined finish. The girls took fourth in the seventh-grade competition and fifth in the eighth grade for a fifth-place combined finish.
Looking to prove who is queen of the area girls’ soccer jungle, the Beardstown Tigers took on two different Panther teams last week, getting a win and a tie. On Friday, the girls were on the road to Virden to take on the Panthers of North Mac. The Lady Tigers doubled them up two to one in both halves to bring home a nice 4-2 win. Xixi Marquez had two goals and an assist to lead Beardstown. Brandy Mendoza and Ashley Gil each had a goal and an assist of their own in the victory.
Two long road trips last week resulted in two wins for the Beardstown baseball team, pushing their record to 4-2 on the year. On Friday the boys pounded Pleasant Hill-Western 15 to 3 in five innings and on Saturday, the Tigers made a huge seventh inning comeback to knock off West Hancock 11 to 6.
The Beardstown Lady Tigers softball team sandwiched a couple of great games around a real stinker last week, winning one and losing two to fall to 2-6 on the season.
Beardstown won in exciting fashion at home on Wednesday with a walk off victory in the bottom of the seventh over West Central. They were shut out on Thursday at home by Pleasant Plains then lost a heartbreaker in eight innings on Saturday at Jacksonville.
The Beardstown Tiger baseball team won twice last week to even their record at 2-2 for the season. They started the week with an 8-1 road loss at Mendon Unity then won a thriller at home, 7 to 5 in nine innings over Augusta Southeastern, before trouncing South Fulton 16 to zip on the road.
Despite the weather playing havoc with the schedule, the Beardstown Lady Tiger Soccer Team is off to a strong start to the 2024 season.
It did not take long for the Beardstown girls’ soccer team to get to know their new head coach and vice versa as long-time assistant Francisco Hernandez slides into the top spot this year. Hernandez takes over for Adam Hamilton just as he did in the fall for the boys’ program. Hamilton was the head coach from the program’s inception in 2013 and he and Hernandez had slowly built the Tigers into a winner. Beardstown went 11-4-5 last year, their second consecutive winning season after eight straight losing seasons for the fledgling program. The Tigers will have to replace several key contributors from last year but have plenty of talented players ready.
Third year Head Softball Coach Kaitlyn Dodson expects the Beardstown Lady Tiger defense to be a strong point of this year’s squad. Coming off a nice 19-12 season last year, following an un-Lady Tiger-like 12-15 season in 2021-2022, Dodson will have to replace several key pieces from last year’s team. She will have an oddly constructed roster at her disposal to do so, as the Tigers are comprised of only juniors and sophomores with no seniors or freshman.
A youth movement is at hand for the Beardstown baseball program. The Tigers have to replace seven departed seniors from last year’s somewhat disappointing 12-16 squad in Head Coach Brian Dour’s debut season. Beardstown is not used to having losing seasons in baseball so expect Coach Dour, his staff and the boys to put in the work required to make sure it does not happen again. He will do so with just two seniors at his disposal and a host of sophomores and freshmen expected to play significant roles.