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Lady Indians finish runners-up at Graham

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The Nocona Lady Indians bounced back to have a nearly flawless second tournament at Graham this past weekend.
The Lady Indians stormed through pool play to make it into the gold bracket before making it all the way to the championship game. Unfortunately, Nocona came up one set short of winning it all.
The Lady Indians started off the tournament on Friday with the opening of pool play against Miller Grove. The Lady Hornets won a closely contested first set 26-24 to take the lead.
That was all it took to wake up Nocona for the rest of the day. The Lady Indians went on to win not only the next two sets by comfortable margins 25-16 and 25-4 to win the match, but in the next three games in pool play. Nocona beat Mineral Wells 25-17 and 25-13, Hawley 25-10 and 25-12, and Abilene High 25-18 and 25-12.
After going 4-0 in pool play, the Lady Indians qualified for the gold bracket on Saturday. The first match against Amarillo Caprock proved tougher than any the team had faced the day before.
Nocona won the first set 25-22, but the Lady Horns came right back to win the second set 25-19. The third and final set went back and forth, going into extra points where the Lady Indians came out on top 29-27.
The second match in bracket play against Victory Christian proved the challenges were going to keep coming. Nocona won the first set 25-19, but lost a closely contested second set 27-25 to set up another winner-take-all third set.
The Lady Indians got ahead early in the third set and won it easily 25-12 to win the match and move on.
Nocona played Fort Worth Christian next for the right to play in the tournament’s championship game. The first set went down to the wire as the Lady Cardinals showed why they had made it this far as well, but the Lady Indians pulled out the win 26-24. Nocona followed it up with a second set that saw it play with a lead and win with a relatively comfortable margin 25-18 to qualify for the championship match.
It would be a rematch against state ranked Brock, who beat the Lady Indians in the regional semifinal last year to end their season.
The first set went to the Lady Eagles 25-17, who showed they were still a force to be reckoned with despite the extra fuel from Nocona. The Lady Indians would not back down though as they won set two 25-21 to force Nocona’s fourth third set of the tournament.
Unfortunately, a bad start from the Lady Indians proved too much for them to overcome as Brock won 25-11 to win the match and the tournament.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.

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Nocona baseball breaks playoffs drought

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The Nocona Indians wrapped up their first playoff berth since 2005 with a dominant win against Chico on Thursday at home.
The Indians won 10-0 in four and half innings due to run-rule to earn the district’s final playoff spot and break a nearly two decade drought.
Nocona was in a similar situation last year after beating Chico in the first game before losing twice more to the Dragons, once in the regular season finale and then in the play-in series.
The Indians won the first game earlier in the week 9-4, but knew they could play better. On Thursday they then proved it.
In the bottom of the first inning, Nocona got the scoring going as Wesley Murphey hit an RBI double. Two batters later, Landon Fatheree drove in two runs with a double.
Konnor Harrington followed with a groundout that scored another run as the Indians led 4-0.
In the second inning, Nocona kept up the pressure. Brody Langford drove in a run with a single. Later with the bases loaded, Caden Belcher was hit by a pitch that scored a run. A later passed ball allowed one more run to score as the Indians extended their lead to 7-0.
Nocona got one more run in the third inning. With the bases loaded, Wesley Murphey grounded into a fielder’s choice out that scored one run to make it 8-0.
The Indians got the final two runs they needed in the fourth inning. Walker Murphey and RJ Walker hit back-to-back RBI singles to put Nocona up 10-0.
Chico needed to score at least one run to prevent the game from ending early due to run-rule. Instead Walker Murphey completed the shutout performance by retiring the next three batters to end the game and the Dragon’s season.
The Indians won 10-0 and earned the district’s final playoff spot.
Wesley Murphey and Fatheree drove in two runs each to lead the team. Walker Murphey led the team with three hits. The team finished with 11 hits and drew six walks.
Walker Murphey also allowed zero runs and one hit while striking out five batters and walking none. The defense behind him committed only one fielding error.
Coach Zach Denson was beyond proud of this team for breaking the playoff drought.
“The amount of growth that they have shown throughout the year has been the most incredible I’ve seen in 13 years of coaching,” Denson said. “We went on a little skid in the middle of the year and that could have derailed our young team, but it actually brought us closer together as a unit.”

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.

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Bowie baseball clinches playoff spot

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Troy Kesey gets in the stretch position at first base to catch the ball before a base runner tries to slide in. (Photo by Kim Seigler)

The Bowie Jackrabbits were able to clinch the final playoff spot on Thursday with a senior night home win against Henrietta.
The Jackrabbits won 6-1 in a game where all of the offensive action happened in the first three innings for both teams.
Bowie came into the game needing to win. Failing to do so would mean setting up a series with the Bearcats for the final playoff spot. If the Jackrabbits just took care of business against a team they had already beaten once pretty easily then they could avoid that whole situation.
Henrietta knew it was playing for the future of its season and struck first. A one out double followed by a single two batters later put the Bearcats up 1-0 against Bowie’s top pitcher Edmond De Leon on the mound.
The offense responded in the same inning with a two-out rally. Troy Kesey hit a single and Hayden Rodriguez drew a walk. De Leon then hit a double to drive one run in.
Cooper Hammer was then hit a by a pitch to load the bases up. Rayder Mann then drew a walk that scored one run and the Jackrabbits led 2-1 before the next batter popped up for out three.
Bowie added to that lead in the second inning. Boston Farris led off with a triple. Tucker Jones then hit a groundball to second base that resulted in an error that allowed Farris to score and make it 3-1 for the Jackrabbits.
Bowie then extended the lead in the third inning. Hammer hit a one-out single. Mann and Cy Egenbacher followed with hits that resulted in fielding errors for the Bearcats. The Jackrabbits scored one run on the second error.
Farris then hit a single that drove in another run. After a strikeout, a wild pitch then allowed another runner to score as Bowie was up 6-1. Another strikeout ended the scoring for the Jackrabbits.
The next three and half innings saw neither team score runs, though both had several chances with two runners getting on at times.
Henrietta’s best chance came in the fifth inning with two singles, but De Leon and Bowie’s defense shut that down. De Leon retired the final seven batters he faced as the Jackrabbits won 6-1.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.

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10 qualify for regional tennis after competing in district

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Gold-Burg’s Jimena Garcia and Alyson Rojas placed first and second in girl’s singles at district. (Courtesy picture)

Last week all of the area schools competed in their district’s tennis tournament and several schools had athletes qualify for the regional tournament.
In the end, 10 athletes finished second or better at district to move on for a chance to qualify for state.
Unfortunately, no players from Bowie were able to break through and qualify.
Many faced early seeding opponents from tennis power Vernon that ended their tournament.
The highest finish for a Bowie player was Lily Hodges who placed fourth in girls singles.
From Nocona, one girl was able to break through as Kaygan Stone finished second in girls singles to qualify for regionals.
Stone has had a tough year, dealing with shoulder problems that shortened both her volleyball and basketball seasons, but she bounced back this spring to qualify for regionals in tennis.
Her teammate Melissa Segura was not so lucky, as she finished third in girls singles and just missed the cut, having to settle for an alternate spot
At the 1A tournament, several schools had multiple athletes in one division qualify.
From Saint Jo, last year’s state qualifying girl’s doubles team of Kyler Dunn and Taylor Patrick won the division.
They beat out the second place finisher and their teammates, the girl’s doubles team of Maxey Johnson and Bailey Nobile, who also qualified for regionals.
From Gold-Burg, Jimena Garcia and Alyson Rojas placed first and second in girls singles to move on to the regional tournament.
Other schools only had one team or individual.
From Forestburg, the mixed doubles team of Jesse Wadsworth and Alli Cisneros finished second as they qualified for regionals.
From Prairie Valley, Case Carpenter finished second in the boys singles division.

To read the full story and see pictures of all of the qualifiers, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.

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