In their most competitive district game so far, the Nocona Lady Indians came up just short on the road at Jacksboro on Friday.
The Lady Indians got it to within one heading into the bottom of the sixth before the Lady Tigers found some breathing room as they ended up winning 12-8. In a district run where Nocona has struggled to prevent that one inning from blowing up, they did their best job so far and had a chance to win.
After neither team could get on base in the first, the Lady Indians Lexi Towery was hit by a pitch to leadoff the top of the second. She was able to steal second, third and home to give Nocona an early 1-0 lead.
Jacksboro was able to tie things up in the bottom of the second. Back-to-back one out singles put runners at the corners and a ground out scored the runner on third to tie the game 1-1 heading into the third inning.
Back-to-back singles from Taylor Rivera and Caitlyn Pepper with two outs gave the Lady Indians another chance to score, but one of them got caught stealing a base to end that chance. Jacksboro was able to get a runner to third with one out. A fly out to left field was deep enough to score the runner and put the Lady Tigers up 2-1 heading into the fourth inning.
A two out double from Laramie Hayes put her in scoring position. Kycelynn Contreras drove her in with a base hit up the middle to tie the game 2-2 in the top of the fourth.
Jacksboro was able to load up the bases with no outs to start the bottom of the fourth. A single scored two runs and it looked like it was going to be the inning where the game would get away from Nocona.
Three more singles scored two more runs to put the Lady Tigers up 6-2. Fortunately, they were able get a force out at home and flew out to centerfield for the final two outs to stop the bleeding before it got worse.
The Lady Indians responded in the top of the fifth. Rivera got on base with a one out single. Next batter Pepper hit a triple to drive her home. Pepper was then able to score on a wild pitch to cut the lead to 6-4.
Jacksboro was able to extend their lead in the bottom of the fifth. A leadoff drawn walk and single put two runners on base. Two singles and a wild pitch scored three runs to put the lead up to 9-4 as the fifth inning ended.
Nocona was not giving up though. Contreras led off with a home run. A single and a hit batter later, Rivera drove in another run. Taylor Richards was able to steal home for another run and then Pepper grounded out to first to score Rivera to cut the lead down to 9-8 before the next batter struck out to end the inning.
Unfortunately, the Lady Tigers responded with a four run inning of their own with three hits, a drawn walk, two errors and a wild pitch to go up 12-8 heading into the final inning.
The Lady Indians ran out of responses offensively as their three batters were sat down one-two-three to end the game.

To read more, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.