SPORTS
Bowie softball improves in loss
The Bowie Lady Rabbits lost against Holliday at home on Friday night.
The Lady Eagles won 13-3, but the Lady Rabbits prevented the game from ending due early due to run-rule.
Bowie was coming into the game following its first district win at Vernon earlier in the week. The team also was getting a few players back a bit healthy to hopefully start to turn the corner.
Still, Holliday has been one of the top teams in the district the last several years. Even with the team taking a step back after losing some key players to graduation, the Lady Rabbits knew it would be a tough game.
Bowie had trouble finding the strike zone to start the game, walking four batters in the first inning. A double, a sacrifice fly ball and a fielding error at third base allowed three runs to score and the Lady Eagles to up 3-0.
Holliday added three more runs in the second inning with two singles, a sacrifice fly ball, a walk and a fielding error that led to two of the runs scoring. The Lady Eagles led 6-0 after two innings
Bowie’s defense had not allowed things to spiral yet despite the bats being too eager to put the ball in play and so far not being able to get any runners on base.
The third inning saw the Lady Rabbits not allow a two out single to turn into a rally. Pitcher Kaylie Kinney fielded a ball hit to her for the third out to blank Holliday’s offense.
Unfortunately, Bowie bats continued to have no luck as Holliday players made all the plays in the field keep runners off the bases. The Lady Eagles came back in the fourth inning to add to their lead.
A single and a double started the inning for Holliday. A single followed to score one run. A sacrifice bunt drove in another. A groundout at second base then allowed a third run to score to put the Lady Eagles up 9-0.
A triple followed and it looked like Holliday might snowball this inning into one that might end the game early for the Lady Rabbits. Thankfully, Kinney induced a groundout at shortstop to stop the bleeding.
While Bowie bats continued to struggle, the defense rebounded in the fifth inning with its only one-two-three inning. Not only did the Lady Eagles not score, but they got no base runners on. In fact, it was only a four pitch inning for Kinney as her defense made the plays behind her at third base, shortstop and in center field.
Bowie bats responded in the same inning with its first base runners of the game.
KP Rutherford drew a walk to lead off the inning. Imala Walker then followed with a single. Unfortunately, the Lady Rabbits could not capitalize. A strikeout and a double play followed to end the fifth inning with no runs for Bowie. Still, the offensive success had broken the ice for the Lady Rabbits going forward.
In the sixth inning, Holliday led off with a triple. A groundout to second base allowed the runner to come in and score to put the Lady Eagles up 10-0. Bowie’s defense retired the next two batters with a lineout at shortstop and a strikeout for Kinney.
Bowie needed to score at least one run to keep the game from ending early due to run-rule. Thankfully, the bats had woken up and the team took advantage of Holliday’s mistakes in the field.
Victoria Cox hit a one out single to left field. Chloe Kinney hit a groundball to the pitcher that resulted in an error. The next batter hit into a fielder’s choice that got the lead runner out at third base for out two.
Serenity Klump then came through and hit a single to left field to drive in one run. Later a passed ball allowed Rhyan Carle to come in and score to cut the lead to 10-2 before a groundout ended the sixth inning.
Holliday ended the game scoring three more runs with two singles, a double and a triple to go up 13-2.
Bowie did end the game on a positive note with Walker leading off and hitting a triple to right field.
Two batters later Laney Oliver drove her in with a single to center field to make the final score 13-3.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week 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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