SPORTS
Bowie baseball falls in district opener
The Bowie Jackrabbits lost their two opening games of district play earlier this week.
The Jackrabbits lost 5-1 against Jacksboro at home on Monday and 7-3 at Iowa Park on Tuesday.
Bowie was coming into the game with a lot of winning momentum from its recent tournament play. It was put to the test as every district game against Jacksboro has been a battle in recent seasons.
The Jackrabbits started Edmond De Leon on the mound and the Tigers got to him early with their base running, small ball ways.
The leadoff hitter used his speed to outrun a big bouncing hit to the pitcher for a single. The base runner then stole second base. A dropped third strike for out one then allowed the runner to advance to third base.
The next Jacksboro batter then grounded out to the shortstop, but it was enough to get the runner on third base to come home and give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
It looked like Jacksboro was going to add more a fielding error and a single got two more runners on base, but DeLeon induced a fly out to left field for out three.
Bowie bats struggled to get anything going early in the game and while the defense committed one error and later allowed one single, De Leon and team settled down to shut down the Tigers’ offense for the next four innings.
The Jackrabbit bats finally got on base in the fifth inning as Seth Mann drew a walk with two outs.
He would successfully steal second base and then Cy Egenbacher followed with a single to put runners at the corners. Unfortunately, the next batter flew out to centerfield for out three.
Jacksboro’s bats then woke up in the sixth inning. A single followed by a double drove in one run. A base hit then drove in another run to make it 3-0 for the Tigers.
In the seventh inning Jacksboro added to its lead. With Rayder Mann coming in to pitch in relief, a hit batter, a triple and a wild pitch allowed two more runs to score for the Tigers.
Bowie was down 5-0 with its last three outs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
With the backs against the wall, the Jackrabbits offense found some success.
De Leon blasted a ball to third base that induced an error to get a runner on base with one out. Andrew Sandhoff came in to run the bases and stole second base. Seth Mann then hit a ball to the shortstop and beat the throw as Bowie had runners at the corners.
Egenbacher then hit a groundball to the shortstop who committed an error and allowed a run to come in for Bowie. Rayder Mann then hit a single to load the bases up with one out.
Unfortunately, the next batter grounded out to the third basemen, who stepped on third base before throwing to first for a game ending double-play. Jacksboro won 5-1.
De Leon pitched six innings and allowed three earned runs on six hits while he struck out four batters. The defense committed two errors.
Bowie had only three hits and drew one walk while taking advantage of three fielding errors from Jacksboro.
Coach Jason McCoy thought his team played well in a game that is always a low scoring, defensive battle against the Tigers.
“Well pitched game by both starting pitchers, they had some incredibly tough at bats so credit to them,” McCoy said. “They started off with an infield hit with a ton of speed and manufactured a run and from there it was a battle. We just couldn’t find barrels all day, but the boys fought till the end.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Two former Bowie boy’s golf members played in the PGA University Championship on Nov. 12-13. (L-R) Cy Egenbacher and Imanol Walker are both in the Sam Houston University PGA Golf Managerment program. The team finished 16th overall. Egenbacher shot 168 during the two rounds and finished tied for 67th. Walker shot 180 and finished 84th. The tournament is a fun one for univesities that have PGA Golf Management programs, which is for individuals who want to work in the golf industry after graduation.
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers came up short at the regional final for the third straight season, one game away from state, on Saturday at the regional tournament in Midlothian.
The Lady Panthers beat Evant in straight sets 3-0 on Friday to reach the final game against Harrold which they lost 3-0.
Saint Jo knew before the season even started it would likely come to this big challenge, but it still had to go through all the steps to get there.
The Panthers reached the regional finals the previous two seasons, losing both times to eventual state champion Blum.
With district realignment meant a new region so a rematch with a Blum program that had graduated several key players from those teams would have to wait until state possibly.
Instead, a showdown against last year’s state runner-up Harrold was forecast in the regional final.
With the team having six seniors, with five of them having been on varsity since they were freshman, it was this year or bust for Saint Jo.
First, the Lady Panthers had to beat Evant. The Lady Elks leaned heavily on a big front court player. When she rotated to the back row, Evant showed almost no net resistance which meant Saint Jo hitters had free reign during that time.
The Lady Panthers won each set pretty easily, with the scores being 25-17, 25-17 and 25-19.
This set up the match with Harrold the team had been anticipating. The Lady Hornets had been at or near the top of the state standings since the beginning of the season.
Harrold had so much respect it had even played bigger local schools this season, beating Bowie in straight sets and Nocona in five sets during its pre-district schedule.
The two teams had met earlier in the season when the Lady Hornets attended Saint Jo’s hosted tournament. The two teams met in the tournament championship where Harrold won 2-1.
Still, with the tournament format being a best of three instead of five and the match after playing an exhausting schedule of five matches the previous two days, that result was not gospel, especially two months later.
The challenge is Harrold had multiple big hitters at the net, which is a big deal since most 1A teams are lucky to have one or two, which meant constant pressure on Saint Jo’s defense.
This also meant the Lady Panthers constantly had to find ways to attack the Lady Hornet defense as well or it would face strong hit after strong hit which was unsustainable for any team.
The first set saw the Lady Hornets get out to a good start before the Lady Panthers rallied back and took a little lead 8-7. Unfortunately, it started turn from there.
Harrold had some good runs from the service line that Saint Jo struggled to make much offense out of and led to the Lady Hornets pulling away. Harrold won 4-1 to get the lead to 11-9 and then extended it to 14-11, 17-13. Another 4-1 run and the Lady Hornets could smell the end of the first set coming.
The Lady Hornets won 25-17 to take the lead 1-0.
Saint Jo needed to bounce back, but unfortunately never got anything going in set two.
Harrold led 4-1 and then 8-2. The Lady Panthers would have needed a huge run at some point from the service line to get back into the set, but it never came as the Lady Hornets lead grew more and more.
Harrold took set two 25-13 to go up 2-0 and had all of the momentum.
Saint Jo had its back against the wall, knowing the only option was to hope for a comeback that would lead to a fifth set, but to get there it needed to win set three.
The Lady Panthers initially started on the right foot. After falling being 4-1 to start the previous two sets, it was Saint Jo that started well up 4-1. Unfortunately, the Lady Hornets came roaring back, going on an 8-2 run as it led 9-6, then 12-8 and 15-10.
It looked like it was heading towards a similar place as set one with Harrold slowly running away with the set before the Lady Panthers made one last gasp.
Saint Jo eventually cut the lead down to one point, trailing 20-19 as the set entered the final stretch and the Lady Panthers had their best momentum of the match.
Unfortunately, it was Harrold that was able to close the set out with momentum, earning the final five points to win 25-19 and the match 3-0.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from Friday’s match, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870620&T=1
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