After sweeping Shiner this weekend, the Thorndale Lady Bulldogs, ranked second in state, move on to face Riviera-Kaufer in the Region IV Class 2A semi-finals, Thursday.
“Riviera-Kaufer is a solid team that we will have to play well against in order to beat,” said Lance Betak, THS softball coach. “You don’t get this far without being pretty good.”
The Lady Seahawks are 18-4-1 this season and finished District 32-2A play undefeated, beating all five of their opponents by an average of more 13 runs per game.
Kaufer opened the postseason with a 17-0 win over Port Aransas and came back from a 1-0 deficit in a best-of-three series with Center Point. In the regional quarterfinals, they swept 10th-ranked Refugio 10-4 and 8-7.
“They have a tall left-handed pitcher who is good from the mound and also good at the plate,” Betak said. “But we have hit lefties well this year and I hope that doesn’t change.”
Junior Madison Alegria lead the ‘Hawks from the circle with 133 strikeouts in 82.2 innings and gave up a total of six hits during district. At the plate, she leads the South Texas squad with seven home runs and a batting average of .649. She has an on base percentage of .712.
If the Lady Bulldogs take down the Riviera-Kaufer in Jourdanton this weekend, they will face the winner of Charlotte and Weimar in the Region IV finals next weekend.
RANKING – Thorndale is ranked second in the latest Texas Girls Coaches Association. The top-ranked team is Crawford of Region II. The two teams will play each other if both make it to the state championship game.
SHINER — Last weekend, the Lady Bulldogs took down Shiner in two close games winning 4-2 in the first and beating the Lady Comanches 3-2.
“I think for the most part we treated Shiner like any other team,” Betak said. “Riley White did what she has done all year.
“She gave up a hit here and there, but Shiner was never able to put any big innings together. Our defense was also rock solid as usual and we only misplayed one pop-up, but it was not a routine play with the way the wind was blowing. We also hit the ball really well. It was just a really good performance against a really good team.”
In game one, the Lady Comanches got a 1-0 lead early but Thorndale was able to string together four runs midway through the game which ended up being enough to win the game.
White led the girls on the mound and at the plate with four strikeouts in seven innings and went three-for-four with one RBI. Emilee Baker, Kate Casey and Kelsey Kovar were also offensive leaders with two hits each and Madison Kelm and Maddie Flores both had one.
In game two, it was Thorndale who got up early thanks to an RBI-single by Kovar to make the game 1-0 in the bottom of the first. Kovar gave her team a 2-0 lead in the fifth with another RBI-single.
Shiner tied the game in their next at-bat with an Emily Vincik RBI-triple and a Taylor Wenske single that scored Vincik to make the game tied at two.
Jayci Martinka’s speed on the bases gave Thorndale the victory. She scored from first after an error was made by the centerfielder on a hit by White.
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