SPORTS
The Indians pick up first district win
The Nocona Indians earned their first district win on Tuesday at home against City View in a game they came back from an early deficit.
The Indians won 8-6, but found themselves behind early in the game.
The Mustangs scored two runs in the first inning thanks to two fielding errors and a single. After Nocona failed to get a runner on base, City View added two more runs in the second inning thanks to a walk, a single and a passed ball.
The Indians found themselves behind 4-0 and needed something to change momentum. Wesley Murphey drew a walk to lead off for Nocona. An error at first base trying to pick him off allowed him to reach second base.
Carlos Castro laid down a bunt to move him to third base. An error from the Mustangs fielding the play not only allowed Castro to reach second base, but Murphey to score, cutting the lead to 4-1.
Nocona looked to score more as Johnny Stone was able to get on base due to another fielding error. Unfortunately, City View’s defense redeemed itself as the team pulled off an inning ending double play to get out of the jam.
The Indians defense cleaned up their play in the third inning. Only a two out single and a passed ball threatened Nocona as the defense made the routine plays for all three outs.
On the other side, the Indians kept taking advantage of City View’s defensive mistakes. Ty Presley drew a walk with one out. After a passed ball allowed him to reach second, Trey Pepper’s fly ball produced an error that allowed him to reach first and Presley third.
An error at catcher allowed Presley to score and Pepper to advance to third base. Kooper Hansard then grounded out to second base, but it was enough to drive Pepper home and cut the lead to 4-3.
Presley had a great inning on the mound as he struck out the side for Nocona. A dropped third strike was redeemed as the batter was thrown out before he got to first base.
On offense, good things continued to happen as the Indians kept benefiting from Mustang errors. Colton Russell led off with a single. A stolen base and a ground out allowed him to reach third base with two outs. An error trying to pick him off at third allowed him to score and tie up the game.
Charlie Fuller and Miguel Olivares then hit back-to-back singles. An error trying to field Olivares hit into the outfield allowed Fuller to score and give Nocona the lead 5-4.
Hansard came in to pitch starting the fifth inning. A one out single provided pressure as the base runner stole second and third base to put him in scoring position to tie the game. Fortunately, Hansard was able to strike out the final batter for the third out.
The Indians offense kept up its assault. Pepper and Hansard led off with back-to-back singles. Pepper stole second base, which put him on third base following Hansard’s hit.
Murphey hit a fly ball into right field for an out, but it was deep enough for Pepper to score.
Russell then came up to bat and hit a double into right field. Castro then came up to bat and grounded out to third base, but it drove in Hansard to up the lead to 7-4.
Hansard struck out the side in the sixth inning to keep City View from building any momentum as Nocona had a firm control of the game.
Olivares was able to draw a walk with one out for the Indians. A ground out and a steal moved him to third base with two outs. It looked like he might get stranded there as Pepper’s ground ball was fielded by the catcher. A bad throw for an error not only allowed Pepper to reach second, but Olivares to score and up the lead to 8-4. Pepper’s bid to steal third base was snuffed out for the third out to end the sixth inning.
It looked like the game was about to be wrapped up, but City View had one last gasp trying to come back in its final at-bats.
A dropped third strike allowed the leadoff runner to get on base. A passed ball and a stolen base allowed him to reach third before a shallow pop out led to the first out. A ground out to first base followed for the second out, but it allowed the runner on third base to score.
The next batter hit a fly ball, but the Indians defense committed an error that allowed the batter to reach second base. A passed ball put another runner on third base, before a single drove him home and cut the lead to 8-6.
A balk then allowed the base runner to reach second base. Hansard was then able to put an end to it all as he struck out the batter for the final out of the game.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
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.
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.
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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