SPORTS
Softball Roundup
Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians won their second straight district game in come from behind fashion at Tioga on Friday.
The Lady Indians won 12-9 in a high-scoring game they took control of in the sixth inning.
Nocona was coming off a good win against Alvord earlier in the week that had closed out the first round of district play. The Lady Indians first game against Tioga had not gone well as the team lost by run-rule after five innings 14-3.
With several games under its belt now and a bit of confidence, it was a different team that played the Lady Bulldogs on Friday.
Nocona took the lead in the first inning. After the loading the bases up and with two outs, Heidi Atteberry drew a walk to score the first run of the game. Kylea Wallace then hit a line drive to first base that resulted in an error and allowed another run to score.
The Lady Indians struck first and led 2-0.
Tioga got those runs back with two RBI singles to tie the game up at 2-2.
In the second inning, Nocona got on the board again. With a runner on base, Avery Crutsinger’s groundball to the pitcher resulted in an error that allowed one run to score and for Crutsinger to end up on third base.
Evelyn Marquez then drove her in as she grounded out to the shortstop to put the Lady Indians up 4-2.
The Lady Bulldogs then had their biggest offensive inning to not only grab the lead, but all of the momentum in the early part of the game. Scoring five runs on two singles, two walks and two fielding errors put Tioga up 7-4.
Nocona got out of the inning with a double-play and a groundout to second base to stop the bleeding.
After all of the scoring the, the defenses played well for the next three innings.
The only score came in the fourth inning when the Lady Indians Reagan Phipps led off with a triple and Crutsinger grounded out to get her home to cut the lead to 7-5.
Still, heading into the sixth inning, Nocona trailed before its offense caught fire.
Two runners got on base with one out. A passed ball allowed one run to score. Marquez hit a groundball to the shortstop that resulted in a fielding error that drove in one run to tie the game.
Skye Kirby then followed and another groundball to the shortstop led to another fielding error that allowed a run to score to give Nocona the lead.
The Lady Indians were not done. Following a single from Abby Hill, Atteberry tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt, but a fielding error allowed another run to score.
During the next at-bat, the ball got away from the catcher twice which allowed both runners to come in and score and put Nocona up 11-7.
Tioga came back and scored two runs in the same inning on a fielding error in the outfield that cut the lead down to 11-9 heading into the seventh inning.
The Lady Indians got one more run as Tinley Cable led off with a triple. Phipps then drove her home with a single to make the final score 12-9.
Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers lost a tough game at Collinsville on Thursday.
The Lady Pirates won 17-1 after two and half innings due to run-rule against the Lady Panthers.
Saint Jo was hoping it could compete better after a rough game against Lindsay earlier in the week, but there was not much positive against Collinsville either.
The Lady Panthers did strike first as Taylor Patrick led off with a single. She would steal second base and then advance to third on an error. She then came in to score on a wild pitch to put Saint Jo up 1-0.
It was short-lived as the Lady Pirates answered with six runs in the first inning and 11 in the second inning. The only other type of offense for the Lady Panthers came from a single from Payzlie Cervantes and a drawn walk from Tatum Morman.
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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