The Bowie Jackrabbits played in a tournament at Graham on March 17-19 to get some more experience and team wide bonding while staying at the Marluc Bella Vita Ranch.
The Jackrabbits went 2-2 during the three days of games.
Bowie first played the tournament host Graham, which was a rematch from the second game of the season several weeks ago. The Jackrabbits won that first game in a low scoring affair, but this game went a little different.
The Steers scored first in the second inning with one run. Bowie answered back in the third inning as Cade Thompson drove in two runs with a double. Graham retook the lead by scoring three runs in the bottom of the third inning and added two more in the fourth inning.
Bowie could not manufacture any more runs the rest of the game as the Steers went on to win 6-2.
It was a disappointing game for the team, so thankfully the game against Oklahoma Christian Academy proved to be a pick me up.
The Jackrabbits scored in all four of their innings with the bats and won big 17-2.
On defense, Thompson pitched all five innings. Besides two runs being scored unearned in the third inning, he only gave up two hits while striking out six. The fielding was not as clean as Bowie had four errors. It was the only blemish on a run-rule victory heading into day two.
Bowie then spent the next two days playing games against Vernon. After a scoreless first two innings, it was the Jackrabbits who scored in the third inning. Brody Armstrong scored thanks to a wild pitch, Troy Kesey drove in two runs with a single and Kawlyer Swearingin drove in another run with a single. Bowie was up 4-0.
The Lions answered back immediately, taking the lead by scoring five runs. Vernon scored one more in the next inning before scoring four in the fifth inning to take a 10-4 lead.
The Jackrabbits bats found life in the sixth inning. With the bases loaded two runs scored thanks to an error by the pitcher. Sanders would groundout, but it would drive in one more run. Kesey was then hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in another run to make it 10-8 heading into the final inning.
While the defense held, Bowie did could not get any seventh inning rally going as it would fail to get anybody on base.
Vernon won 10-8.
Bowie would get its chance at revenge the next day against the Lions. This time, the Jackrabbits scored early in the game in the first inning.
Kesey hit a sacrifice fly to score the first run. Fallis followed with a double that drove in another to make 2-0.
The next three innings were scoreless until Bowie added to its lead in the fifth inning. Kesey drove in another run, this time with a single. Later with the bases loaded and two outs, Thompson hit a single into the outfield that drove in two runs to make the score 5-0.
Vernon then came on with a vengeance in the sixth inning, scoring four runs to cut the lead to 5-4. The Lions would then tie the game up in the seventh inning 5-5, and had two runners on base with no outs still.
Bowie’s defense and Fallis on the mound did a good job of getting the next three outs without surrendering another run.
The Jackrabbit bats had no answer and the game moved into extra innings.
In the eighth inning, with the bases loaded and one out, Whatley came through for Bowie with a sacrifice fly for the walk-off RBI. Bowie won 6-5.

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