Lady Hawks Grounded by Wind, Explosive Alpine Team in Offensive Thriller

STANTON, TX-- The Wall Lady Hawk’s mammoth comeback fell short against a powerful Alpine Lady Bucks team in the first game of a best-of-three series in the softball Class 3A Region I Quarterfinal on Friday. The final score in the offensive thriller was Alpine 27, Wall 12 in six innings.

The two teams made full use of a strong wind blowing out to combine for nine home runs in the game. The Lady Hawks had three of those home runs while Alpine notched six bombs.

“I knew [Alpine was] good and I knew they could hit well,” Wall Head Coach Steve Bain said. “They crushed the ball.”

Alpine got the scoring started early as Camryn Hardin came around to score on KC Gallegos’ single after a leadoff double and a stolen base.

Pitcher Keyshla Vargas helped her own cause with a three-run shot to left-center field to put Alpine up 4-0 and force Lady Hawk starter Izzy Vera out of the circle without registering an out.

Kenzee Smith entered the game and retired the side after allowing a walk to Macy Molsbee who would eventually score on a groundout from Ileana Lujan. Alpine took a 5-0 lead to the bottom of the first inning.

“We made some mistakes there. We didn’t help ourselves,” Bain said. “We could not get out of that inning. That cost us.”

The Lady Hawks would respond in their first at-bats. Payton Box led off with a double to right field before Rylee Morales obliterated a ball to left-center field.

Ashlynn Box would continue the trend for the Lady Hawks with a loud single to the right field fence. Box came home to score on a single to left field from Lexi Valles to pull Wall within two runs at 5-3 after the first frame.

Alpine’s onslaught did not let up in the second inning with the Lady Bucks sending eight to the plate and four runs coming home. Maggie Hernandez led off the inning with a solo shot before Vargas crushed her second three-run home run to put Alpine up 9-3.

The Lady Hawks plated two more runs in the home half of the second with Payton Box coming around to score on another loud single by Ashlynn Box and Rylee Morales coming home on a sacrifice fly to center field from Ashley Dusek to narrow the deficit to 9-5.

Alpine was still not done scoring, however, with three runs coming home in the third inning and a two-run home run by Camryn Hardin in the fourth as the bookends to a scoreless bottom of the third inning by the Lady Hawks. Alpine held a commanding 14-5 lead after four innings.

Alpine looked to have the run-rule set to go after taking a 15-5 lead in the top of the fifth inning. The Lady Hawks weren’t ready for the game to end, however. Wall came screaming back to life in the bottom of the fifth inning with a six-run, two-out rally to pull within four runs. Ashlynn Box and Ashley Dusek accounted for half of that rally with their back-to-back jacks. Those would be the last runs Wall scored in the inning.

“I’m super proud of them [for fighting back],” Bain said of the Lady Hawk rally. “They did an awesome job.”

Alpine answered in explosive fashion in the sixth inning by sending 15 batters to the plate and scoring 12 runs to take a 27-11 lead with the Lady Hawks down to their final three outs.

The Lady Hawks got their final run on the board when Alpine intentionally walked Ashlynn Box with the bases loaded.

“It’s tough when you come back and [Alpine] did that and hit the ball the way they did,” Bain said. “We’ve got to clean up and play better defensively.”

Ashlynn Box finished the day 4-for-4 with four RBIs and two runs scored to go with her home run. Rylee Morales went 3-for-4 at the plate with four RBIs and three RBIs to go with her home run as well.

Vargas threw a complete game to get the win for Alpine. and went 4-for-5 with seven RBIs and three runs scored to go with her two home runs.

Izzy Vera took the loss for the Lady Hawks by allowing four runs on four hits. Kenzee Smith threw five-and-a-third innings total and was charged with 16 runs. Madi Herrera came on for two-thirds of an inning and allowed seven runs before Smith re-entered the circle.

The Lady Hawks will put their season on the line at noon tomorrow against Alpine. A loss would bring their season to an end, while a win would force a decisive game three in the Class 3A Region I Quarterfinals.