The Bowie Lady Rabbits survived a 37-run epic against rival Nocona in Tuesday’s opening district game at home.
The Lady Rabbits won 19-18 in walk-off fashion with a Rylie Vieth RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning.
It was a chilly night that seemed to have an affect on everything, making it not the best played game of softball. Still, it never lacked action or drama.
The Lady Indians struck first in the opening inning. Reagan Phipps scored on a passed ball and Tobie Cable scored thanks to an error on her steal at third base. Nocona led 2-0.
Bowie answered back in the same inning. Vieth hit an RBI single followed by Stephanie Allen’s 3-run inside-the-park home run to give the Lady Rabbits a 4-2 lead.
The second inning passed with no runs, which would prove to be the only inning where that happened.
Cable tied the score with a two-RBI double in the third inning. Kennedy Stone then drew a walk with the bases loaded for another run. Stephany Gutierrez followed with a groundball that induced an error at first base that allowed two more runs to make it 7-4.
The Lady Rabbits hit back though. Stewart hit a three-run inside-the-park home run to tie the game. Vieth followed with an RBI triple. Allen then hit an RBI double. An error in the outfield allowed Allen to come in to score to put Bowie up 10-7.
The fourth inning saw Nocona tie the score back up at 10-10. Cable hit a two-RBI triple. Kirby then drove her home on a sacrifice fly to center field.
The Lady Rabbits got back the lead before the end of the fourth inning. Addie Farris hit an RBI single to make it 11-10 Bowie heading into the fifth inning.
After the Lady Indians failed to score, the Lady Rabbits looked to take a definitive lead with a seven run inning.
Sadie Britt’s groundball induced an error at shortstop that allowed one run to score. Farris drove in a run with a single. Kenzie Short drove two runs with a single down the first baseline. Vieth drove in two more runs with a fly-ball single to right field. Finally Allen hit a single up the middle to drive in one more run to give Bowie an 18-10 lead.
Nocona was not just going to take that rough fifth inning and not respond though. Cable drove in run on a double to left field. Later an error at third base allowed Cable to score.
Two batters later Avery Crutsinger drove in a run on a groundball single to right field. It cut the lead to 18-13.
The Lady Indians were able to keep that momentum up on defense by preventing Bowie from scoring any runs as the game went to the seventh and final inning.
Nocona was able to come all the way back to tie the game up. Sydnee Mowry drove in a run with a groundball single. Cable then hit a groundball to shortstop that induced an error and allowed another run to score.
Kirby then hit a groundball single to left field that allowed to two runs to score. Following two strikeouts and with the tying run on base, Crutsinger came through with a groundball single to left field that tied the score at 18-18.
Not rattled by the Lady Indians one and half innings of great play to make up an eight-run difference, Bowie composed itself and executed to prevent the game from going into extra-innings.
Stewart led off with a single. Short followed with a sacrifice bunt that moved Stewart to second and into scoring position. Vieth followed with a line drive single to center field that was enough for Stewart to score the winning run.
The game ended with all participants shivering after three hours and Bowie on top winning 19-18.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.