Nocona vs Bellevue
The Nocona Indians beat Bellevue at home on Tuesday night.
The Indians won by run-rule after three innings 20-2 against the young Eagles program.
Nocona was trying to knock the rust off as the previous week’s games were canceled due to the girl’s basketball team competing at the state tournament.
Bellevue is just trying to celebrate any positives early in the season with a young and inexperienced roster and program.
The highlight of the game for the Eagles was their brief 1-0 lead in the first inning. Brennan Criswell scored on a passed ball with the bases loaded and two outs.
Nocona then responded with eight runs. The Indians racked up two singles, a double and a triple, drew two walks and took advantage of three fielding errors to go up 8-1 after the first inning was done.
Bellevue scored one more run in the second inning. Connor Ward was trying to steal third base. An error on the throw allowed him to come in and score to cut the lead to 8-2.
Nocona looked like it was about to add more runs in the same inning. Three straight singles loaded the bases up with no outs. Bellevue was able to get an out at home plate, Bryce Ramsey got himself a strikeout and the next batter grounded out to first base and the Eagles got out of the jam.
After the Indians defense allowed no base runners from Bellevue in the third inning, Nocona’s offense then went to end the game. The Indians racked up six singles, one double, five walks, one hit batter and took advantage of two fielding errors to score 12 runs.
Bellevue batted one more time, but could not get anything going and the game ended.
Nocona won 20-2.

Nocona softball
The Nocona Lady Indians had a tough opening district game on Tuesday against Tioga.
The Lady Bulldogs won by run-rule 14-3 after five innings as the Lady Indians tried to get back on track while also initiating new players onto the team.
Nocona had a tournament scheduled the previous week, but the team did not play in it so they could support the girl’s basketball team playing at the state tournament. Also, two starters are coming straight from basketball, so a certain amount of rust was to be expected.
Tioga immediately loaded the bases up to start the game. All of them came into score thanks to a fielding error in the outfield. Two batters later the runner came in to score on a fielder’s choice groundout as the Lady Bulldogs were up 4-0.
Tioga added one more run in the second inning on the basepaths and then two more in the third inning on a hard hit single into the outfield.
Down 7-0, the Lady Indians bats found some success in the third inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, Evelyn Marquez came through with a bases clearing triple to cut the lead to 7-3.
Unfortunately, the Lady Bulldogs got those three runs back in the fourth inning. A groundout to first base scored one run along with a RBIs on a double and single later in the inning made it 10-3.
Tioga then looked to end the game as three RBI singles and one stolen home play scored four runs.
Down 14-3, Nocona needed to score two more runs to prevent the game from being ended early due to run rule. Despite back-to-back singles from Marquez and Avery Crutsinger and with both of them in scoring position, the Lady Indians fell short of getting them home. A strikeout following for out three and the game ended.

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