Saturday, May 16, 2009
BELTON — The Reicher Lady Cougars were eager to become queens of TAPPS softball, but Kristin Martinez and Galveston O’Connell were unwilling to abdicate the throne.
Martinez didn’t surrender a hit until the sixth inning and gave up only three in all in hurling the O’Connell Lady Buccaneers past Reicher, 4-0, in the TAPPS Class 3A state championship game Friday afternoon at the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor softball complex.
O’Connell’s victory extended its dynasty, as the Lady Bucs have now won the last six 3A TAPPS titles.
Reicher (21-10), meanwhile, may have been ahead of schedule with its success this season. The Lady Cougars had one only senior, centerfielder Erica Estrada, on their roster, meaning a slew of state tournament veterans will return in 2010.
“Our future is bright,” Reicher coach David Hurtado said. “We’ve got a good group of girls. When it comes down to a game like this, it comes down to pitching and defense, and we just didn’t make the plays in the field. We had about three key mistakes defensively out there that cost us the game.”
Using a similar method to the successful game plan of Reicher’s Nataly Gutierrez in Thursday’s semifinals, O’Connell’s Martinez was spot-on precise with her pitches throughout the game. Through the first five innings, the junior left-hander faced the minimum 15 batters.
“You’ve got to give credit to their pitcher,” Hurtado said. “She’s playing at Texas Tech (in 2011), and she did a great job of controlling the batter’s box. That’s the plus of having two solid pitchers. Their No. 2 is real good in (Camaron) Chide, the first baseman. She pitched their game yesterday. So their pitcher today was fresh.”
O’Connell dented the scoreboard first in the top of the third when Ally Delgado hammered a two-out triple over Estrada’s head in center field, then scampered home moments later on a Gutierrez wild pitch.
The Lady Bucs made it 2-0 in the fourth on Abbey Laclede’s bouncing RBI single through the infield.
Reicher’s only baserunner through the first five innings came in the bottom of the third, when Jordan Armstrong reached safely on an O’Connell error. But O’Connell caught a break when Reicher’s Katie Edenfield popped up her sacrifice bunt attempt, allowing the Lady Bucs to double Armstrong off first.
After the Lady Bucs plated two more runs on a sacrifice fly and a Martinez double in the fifth, Reicher finally got its first hit of the game to lead off the sixth, as Armstrong reached on a slow-rolling infield single.
But the Lady Cougars couldn’t bring Armstrong around, and they had similar issues in the do-or-die seventh. Following well-struck singles from Kate Harrison and Gutierrez, the next three Reicher batters struck out swinging against Martinez, who had 11 K’s in all.
But Hurtado was proud that his team went down fighting.
“That’s why I’m real proud of these young ladies, because they didn’t quit,” said the Reicher coach, his voice cracking. “I think maybe we just cashed in all of our hits yesterday.”
bcherry@wacotrib.com
757-5714
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