The Jena Lady Giants had another busy week playing some of the best teams in the state this past week and along the way beat Bunkie to claim the District 2-3A Championship – their second district championship in three years.
On Tuesday, March 18, the Lady Giants would take on the Bunkie Panthers at home in another District 2-3A matchup. Junior pitcher Kiette Cooper would come into the game with 699 strikeouts in her career. Cooper would then strikeout the first batter of the game to reach an incredible career milestone with 700 career strikeouts. Cooper would once again be dominant in the circle as she did not give up a hit in the game and finished with 9 strikeouts.
Cooper would also hit two homeruns in the game and sophomore Mary Wood would hit two homeruns in the game as well. The Lady Giants would also get a homerun from Triniti Williams and a two RBI triple from Callie Decker.
The Lady Giants would go on to win 10-0 and with the win, they claimed the district championship. Jena still has not played Vidalia in district as that game had to be rescheduled due to rain, but even without playing that game, Jena is undefeated in district at 4-0 and everyone else in district has at least two losses. This is the Lady Giants second district championship in three years.
This past weekend the Lady Giants would travel to Shreveport to participate in the Calvary tournament. On Friday, March 21, the Lady Giants would pick up a 5-1 win over St. Mary’s. Kiette Cooper picked up the win with 16 strikeouts.
Callie Decker, Triniti Williams and Mary Wood all had hits in the game. Bailey Durham had an RBI.
In the Lady Giants’ second game of the night, they would take on Benton. Coming into the game Benton was ranked #2 in Division 1 Non-Select. The Lady Giants would get a homerun from Bailey Durham and Kiette Cooper would finish with 7 strikeouts, but Benton would get the 8-4 victory.
On Saturday, March 22, the Lady Giants would take on the hosts in Calvary Baptist. Calvary is nationally ranked and came into the game with a 23-0 record for the season.
The Lady Giants would put up a fight in the game but Calvary would go on to win 7-0. Kiette Cooper would finish with 10 strikeouts which is very impressive against a lineup as good as what Calvary has. Sydney Williams would pick up the only hit of the game for the Lady Giants.
The Lady Giants are now 13-5 on the season and are ranked #3 in the Division III Non-Select power rankings. This weekend the Lady Giants will be participating in the Quitman tournament.
