SAN ANTONIO – That elusive second-round win that has escaped the Champion softball team will have to wait at least another year.
Champion had a chance at its first second-round victory in program history on Friday against McCollum and was one out away from making it happen but the Cowgirls turned the Chargers away with a heartbreaking 5-2 defeat in 11 innings.
The Chargers end the season at 15-10-1 overall.
Friday’s contest turned into a knock-down, drag-out kind of a game almost from the start.
“Every inning was a dog fight,” Chargers coach Bethany Holtorf said. “It was a pitcher’s duel.”
Chargers pitcher Carmen Vela and McCollum hurler Dominique Guerra went the distance for their respective teams.
The two combined for 352 pitches and 27 strikeouts. Guerra threw 159 pitches and recorded 17 strikeouts, while Vela tossed 193 pitches and had 10 strikeouts. Both pitchers only walked 4 batters each.
Holtorf said after knocking out 11 hits against then No. 1 state-ranked Leander in the previous playoff game, the Chargers couldn’t duplicate their success at the plate last Friday for one big reason.
“We didn’t make adjustments at the plate, we needed to make quicker adjustments at the plate to put the ball in play and get some runs across and we didn’t make that happen,” she said. “Our offense is what let us down tonight. We knew we couldn’t think about that Leander win, that it meant nothing and we had to focus on this one and we still couldn’t hit the ball.”
Champion’s Ashley Otters was the very first batter of the game and accounted for the only run of the contest for the first six and a half innings.
Otters walked and then the next batter Riley Murrish bunted. The throw to first by the McCollum third baseman on the bunt went into right field to move Otters to third and Murrish to second.
Ottmers later scored on a wild pitch and the Chargers were up 1-0. It stayed that way until the seventh when McCollum tied it with a hit batter, a walk and a single to make it 1-1, all with two outs.
Before the Cowgirls tied it in the bottom of the seventh, Champion had a chance to make it 2-0 in the top of the seventh.
Madison Hall walked with two outs and then Kassidy Kureska smashed a shot over the left-fielder’s head that stayed in play. Hall made it around the bases and Holtorf sent her home. There was a play at the plate and Hall was called out.
“I should have held my runner up at third instead of sending her. As soon as the inning was over, I wish I would have held her,” Holtorf said. “They made a perfect throw to the (cutoff) and the (cutoff) made a perfect throw to home, so they made two perfect throws.”
After McCollum tied it in the seventh, it went to the eighth where the Cowgirls loaded the bases with no outs but Vela pitched them out of the jam with two pop ups and a strike out, her 9th at that point.
In the 11th, Krista Tarver singled for the Chargers and her courtesy runner Dakota Salazar later scored on a Lily Ritchie single and Champion was ahead 2-1, but the lead didn’t last for long.
McCollum tied it in the bottom of the 11th at 2-2 and then with two runners on, Rosalyn Rodriguez smacked a walk-off, 3-run homer to end it at 5-2.
“We knew not to underestimate them; we knew they would be scrappy and would hit the ball and play solid defense but we didn’t put the ball in play to see if they could play solid defense,” Holtorf said. “I would have liked for us to challenge them a little bit more.”
Senior Ashley Ottmers, Carmen Vela, Gabi Vela and Krista Tarver will graduate from the team.
“The seniors were very consistent, solid players for us all around,” Holtorf said. “I’m looking for girls to step up and fill those roles.”
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