Austin-area softball: Some district seedings to settle before playoffs start
Austin High freshman Kaelyn Knox lashed a two run, walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning to lead the Maroons to a 6-5 win over Del Valle on Friday, knocking the Cardinals out of a tie for third place in District 26-6A with Bowie. Johnson and Dripping Springs finished the regular season as district co-champions and will play off for seeding; Bowie was third and Del Valle was fourth.
Austin High, which just missed the playoffs after finishing fifth, was nonetheless a spoiler in the final game.
“The game was just electrifying,’ Maroons coach Kristin Lozano said. Del Valle took a first-inning lead on a two-run home run by Tiffany Sanchez. Del Valle again took the lead in the top of the seventh with a home run blast by Amani Howard.
Camron Bishop had three hits including a double, and pitched the seven-inning complete game win for Austin High. Jazmine Benavides added three hits; the Maroons had 13 hits in all.
It was a tough week for a vastly improved Del Valle team as the Cardinals lost to Dripping Springs 2-0 last Tuesday on a pair of unearned runs to fall out of a tie for first and into a tie for third with Bowie. Then they lost to Austin High, which dropped the Cardinals into fourth place where they will meet 25-6A champion Round Rock in bi-district later this week.
In other action, Dripping Springs beat Del Valle 2-0, Bowie beat Westlake 11-1 and Johnson beat Akins 7-0. Dripping Springs and Johnson finished tied for first in 26-6A while Bowie and Del Valle finished tied for third. In Del Valle, Dripping Springs' Jordan Cox fired a nine-strikeout shutout and made the defensive play of the game when she dove from the circle and caught an attempted bases-loaded, squeeze play bunt off the bat of a Del Valle hitter and then converted the throw to third base for an inning-ending double play.
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Johnson kept pace as Amia Torrez was near perfect in the circle for the Jaguars. Torrez earned the win with a complete game, 12-strikeout performance. Kiersten Williams hit a home run for the winning Jaguars. Bowie won for the ninth time in 11 games as it run-ruled Westlake 11-1. Cadie Hays earned the win to improve to 9-5 on the season.
Bowie sophomore Alyssa Lusk had three hits and drove in three runs while Anya German added two hits and drove in two runs. Freshman Bella Nungary had three hits, including two doubles.
Bowie clinched third place with a 7-5 win over Lake Travis on Friday night. Cadie Hays earned the win for Bowie, which got two hits, including a double and two RBIs, from German and two hits with three RBIs by Valeria Feeney. Bowie’s Josie Buscheme had two stolen bases.
Round Rock wins title, loses perfection bid
District 25-6A wrapped up a week earlier as Round Rock won its district championship but saw its bid for an undefeated district season end as Vista Ridge pitcher Mikala Hama shut out the Dragons 1-0. Round Rock is first, Vista Ridge third and Cedar Ridge, which swept Vista Ridge, is fourth. Stony Point captured the fourth place playoff berth and will meet the winner of the Dripping Springs-Johnson game.
Georgetown capped an unbeaten season in District 23-5A as the Eagles beat Bastrop 15-0. Georgetown scored nine runs in the second and six more in the fourth for the final score. Pflugerville blanked Cedar Creek 8-0 and Elgin beat Hendrickson 9-1 as the Lady Cats and Panthers tied for second and will play off Tuesday night at Weiss for seeding.
Elgin won 3-1 at home while the Panthers blanked Pflugerville 5-0 last week as the teams split the season series. East View was fourth in district.
In the Elgin-Pflugerville second meeting Tuesday, Panthers senior Delilah Robles (17-4) fired a 14-strikeout, two-hit shutout. She finished the regular season with 250 strikeouts with just eight walks (two intentional). The hard-throwing right-hander has a 0.58 ERA and opposing hitters are batting just .119 against her. Two years ago, Pflugerville beat Elgin in a one-game playoff for first-place seeding and last year the teams tied again with Elgin winning the coin flip for seeding.
A first for LASA-Austin
LASA-Austin won its first-ever softball championship in District 24-5A as the Raptors put up double digits offensively in every district game and its only two losses were in tournament play, both on March 2. Crockett finished second in district while McCallum was third and Eastside Early College notched the fourth position and will meet state-ranked and two-time state tournament qualifier Georgetown in bi-district.
Liberty Hill won District 25-5A after the Panthers beat second-place Hays 2-0. Ashleigh Heiderscheit had two hits and drove in a run for the Panthers while Molly Cochran singled twice and Rylee Slimp singled in the second run. In other action, Rouse beat Cedar Park 12-2, Leander defeated Lockhart 13-1 and Hays blanked Lehman 1-0. Glenn finished third and Leander fourth in district.
Burnet captured first place in District 24-4A after the Bulldogs posted a 9-1 district mark, 21-10 overall and outscored the opposition 252-103. Burnet started the season 2-7, playing larger schools, but then won 19 of their next 22 games to win district. Gateway College Prep finished second while Jarrell was third and Lampasas fourth as playoff qualifiers. Caldwell won District 22-4A with La Grange second, Smithville third and Taylor fourth. Caldwell finished the regular season by beating Manor New Tech 15-0 while La Grange beat Giddings 15-0 and Smithville edged Taylor for third place 8-4.
Comfort posted a 9-1 mark to win the District 5-3A title while Llano and Blanco finished at 7-3 and Florence 5-5. Llano beat Blanco head-to-head 9-0 and 9-3 to secure second place. Llano (20-4-1) played Cedar Ridge to a 0-0 seven-inning tie last weekend in a friendly game.
Bremond and Milano went one-two in District 27-2A followed by Thorndale and Granger. Granger will play in the Class 1A playoffs so Thrall will get the fourth-place Class 2A berth. (Classifications 1A and 2A play a combined district schedule to mitigate travel expenses.)
Johnson City rebounded from its loss to Homeschool power FEAST of San Antonio by blanking Junction 10-0 and winning District 28-2A. Harper finished second, followed by Center Point and Junction. In on-th- field results, Johnson City also beat Mason 17-7, Harper outscored San Saba 14-10, and Mason beat Sonora 12-8.
Hyde Park blanked TMI of San Antonio 15-0 to improve to 36-2, 10-1. Panthers pitcher Bella Milicia improved to 12-0 with the complete-game shutout. Brooke Magids had two hits, Olivia Villanueva drove in a pair of runs and Cariana Stout had six stolen bases in the game. Earlier, Hyde Park beat San Antonio Providence 12-2 as Milicia had two hits with two RBIs while scoring twice. Stout had two hits and scored twice. Villanueva drove in three runs with two hits, including a home run. The Panthers hit 21 home runs on the season and have scored a school-record 450 runs. Taylor Haywood is 23-1 in the circle with 209 strikeouts.
Hyde Park's Haywood takes top player honors
Player of the week: Taylor Haywood, junior, Hyde Park. Haywood is a combination hitting-pitching standout for the highly-regarded Panthers, She's hitting .647 with 55 hits, 57 RBIs, 48 runs scored and a frightening on-base percentage of .714. In the circle, Haywood is 23-1 with 209 strikeouts for the district champion Panthers.
This year's players of the week: (1) Taylor Anderson, Dripping Springs; (2) Brooke Wells, Vista Ridge; (3) Evie Hodge, Austin High; (4) Madison Hartley, Georgetown; (5) Addison Otto, Smithville; (6) Kyle Goad, Johnson; (7) Chloe Ellis, Gateway College Prep; (8); Maddy Azua, Round Rock; (9) Taylor Haywood, Hyde Park
Dripping Springs takes team of the week kudos
Team of the week: Dripping Springs. The Tigers had an uncharacteristic three-game losing streak in mid-district play as the Tigers lost to Austin 2-1, to Bowie 2-1 in eight innings and finally to Johnson 11-4 to drop the Tigers into a precarious playoff position. But Dripping Springs regrouped. The Tigers finished district by beating Akins 10-0, Westlake 12-0 and Lake Travis 8-2 before moving back into serious contention with a 2-0 win over Del Valle followed by an 8-0 win over Anderson to claim a share of the 26-6A championship in their first season as a Class 6A school.
Previous winners: week 1- Hyde Park. week 2- Georgetown. week 3- Johnson City week 4- Round Rock week 5- Leander week 6- Austin High week 7- Liberty Hill week 8- LASA-Austin week 9- Dripping Springs
Fab Fives
Class 6A
1. Dripping Springs 13-3, 28-7
2. Johnson 13-3, 24-6-1
3. Round Rock 13-1, 18-9-1
4. Cedar Ridge 12-2, 22-4-1
5. Bowie 12-4, 22-16
Class 5A
1. Georgetown 14-0, 31-4
2. Liberty Hill 11-1, 23-6
3. LASA-Austin 14-0, 18-2
4. Pflugerville 9-3, 22-6-1
5. Hays 11-3, 22-10
Class 4A and others
1. Hyde Park 10-1, 36-2
2. Johnson City 13-0, 22-6-1
3. Burnet 9-1, 21-10
4. Llano 7-3, 20-4-1
5. La Grange 7-3, 15-15
This week's top area games
This week's schedule
Hyde Park at Savio, 4 p.m.
Brentwood Christian at Valor South Austin, 4:30 p.m.
Elgin vs. Pflugerville, 7 p.m. (Weiss)
Softball playoffs
Class 6A
Round Rock vs. Del Valle
Cedar Ridge vs. Bowie
Vista Ridge vs. Dripping Springs or Johnson
Stony Point vs. Dripping Springs or Johnson
Class 5A
Georgetown vs. Eastside Early College
Leander vs. N.B. CanyonLiberty Hill vs. S.A. Veterans Memorial — 6 p.m. Thursday (Liberty Hill); 6 p.m. Friday (Veterans Memorial); 2 p.m. Saturday (Wimberley, if needed)
Glenn vs. Smithson Valley — 7 p.m. Friday (Glenn); noon Saturday (Smithson Valley, Game 3 30 min. following, if needed)
Crockett vs. Pflugerville or Elgin
McCallum vs. Pflugerville or Elgin
LASA Austin vs. East View
Hays vs. Seguin
Class 4A
Burnet vs. Gatesville — 7 p.m. Thursday (Burnet); 7 p.m. Friday (Gatesville); Game 3, TBA
Gateway College Prep vs. Waco Connally
Jarrell vs. Robinson
Lampasas vs. Salado
Smithville vs. TBA
La Grange vs. TBA
Taylor vs. TBA
Class 3A
Llano vs. TBA
Blanco vs. TBA
Florence vs. TBA
Class 2A
Johnson City vs. TBA
Thorndale vs. TBA
Thrall vs. TBA
Class 1A
Granger vs. TBA
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: High school softball playoffs begin this week, as teams settle spots
