Hot Bats Help Lady Hawks Down Crane in Playoffs

 

COAHOMA, TX—The Wall Lady Hawks walked-off the Crane Golden Cranes 13-3 in five innings to claim the Bi-District championship on Thursday.

Despite the lopsided score, Crane jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning behind an RBI double from Kamelia Navarrette.

“It’s the playoffs,” Wall head coach Steve Bain emphasized. “Hats off to Crane. They came in and executed right off the bat and hit the ball. The main thing is we adjusted to the pitching.”

The Lady Hawks would rally in the bottom of the first by sending eight batters to the plate three runs. Lexi Valles drove in two of those three with a hard-hit double that clanged off the left field fence.

The scoring trend continued for the Lady Hawks in the next inning with Ashley Dusek driving in two more runs on a double to left field.

“I think that really boosted our confidence,” Dusek said. “We knew this game wasn’t going to be handed to us. Just the fact we were getting hits on the roll in the very start, it made us think we were going to keep that lead. But then when they started hitting, we knew had to keep hitting. We knew it had to be a continuous thing.”

Crane would mount a rally of sorts in the top of the third with Cali McWilliams dropping down a bunt with a runner on. McWilliams and Amy Rodriguez, the baserunner, would come around to score on a pair of errors by the Lady Hawk defense.

Those errors left the Lady Hawks a bit rattled.

Pitcher Kenzee Smith would settle her team down by striking out two of the next four batters she faced in the inning to escape with minimal damage.

“Those first few mistakes really rattled me because we haven’t made those mistakes since early in the year,” Smith said. “I think that was my big turning point for the game. That [second] strikeout gave me the confidence where I was like ‘You know what, I can throw it over the plate and I’ll be ok.’ It’s not just me out there. I have eight other people behind me. That second strikeout really propelled me forward into the next innings.”

The confidence did not stay solely in the field for the Lady Hawks as their bats came alive in the bottom of the third.

Eleven Lady Hawks came up to the plate in the top of the third inning with eight of them scoring.

Ashlynn Box and Dusek highlighted the inning with back-to-back RBI triples. Box cleared the loaded bases with her triple before Dusek drove her in during the next at-bat.

“I was thinking I’ve got to run fast,” Dusek said with a smile, adding that she wasn’t thinking of the past due to the team’s mindset of “handling what’s next.”

Leading 11-3 in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Lady Hawks needed two runs to enact the run-rule.

Lexi Valles scored on a wild pitch to pull Wall within one run of the rule before Smith came home on a ground out by Izzy Vera.

Ashlynn Box, Dusek, and Valles all finished with three RBIs in a patient day at the plate for the Lady Hawks.

“It’s kind of weird because they’re the ones that jump on everything,” Bain said. “It’s maturity, being patient and being smart. Hats off to them.”

The Lady Hawks improve to 21-4 and will face the winner of the Idalou in the Area round at a location and time to be determined.

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