JOURDANTON – Last Thursday’s one-game playoff pitted Boerne and Alice as the No. 3 Coyotes and No. 5 Lady Greyhounds battled to see which team would advance to the regional finals or fifth round.
Boerne High won the matchup of top 5 teams in the state, 7-2, and were impressive both offensively and defensively. They improved to 29-9 overall and face Calallen in the regional finals. Boerne’s series will be a one-gamer Friday in Jourdanton, 6:30 p.m.
Boerne and Calallen met there two years ago in this round and the Wildcats won the region and headed to state, but at least one Greyhound, catcher Heidi Maytum, said she didn’t care who they play and isn’t focused on that part of it.
“I do not (care), I’m just happy that we got this far because last year we came up short, so I’m glad we made it this far,” she said.
BHS pitcher Ava “Bevo” Rodriguez struck out 13 in last week’s game, scattered 5 hits and only gave up 2 runs.
Greyhounds coach Chester Pettibon said Rodriguez and catcher Maytum work well together.
“(Rodriguez) was zipping it, she was changing speeds, moving it around. She’s been our backbone all year when it comes to being in the circle,” the coach said. “Her and Heidi make a great combination. They do a lot of studying behind the scenes that nobody sees as far as studying batters and understanding situations.”
The Coyotes scored a run in the fourth and the other in the fifth. Alice had the bases loaded in the fourth but Rodriguez struck out the next batter to end the threat.
Maytum said Rodriguez was in a zone on Thursday.
“She trusts me to call the pitches for her and I trust her to hit her zones and we trust each other,” Maytum said. “She did what she had to do and she did it amazingly.”
Maytum definitely helped her pitcher with her stick. In the first inning, Maytum hit a double to bring in Taryn Madlock and Taylor Wilson for the quick 2-0 lead.
Maytum said Alice pitcher and Our Lady of the Lake signee, Ava Hernandez, is one of the better hurlers she faced this year, but the senior was able to tag Hernandez for three hits, 2 singles and a double, 3 RBI and made it safely to base all four times she batted after she walked in her final at bat.
“I got a lot of change ups and she had pitched the change up a lot to everybody so I decided I was going to swing if she threw me a change up,” Maytum said. “I knew she was going to pitch me inside, watching film that’s all she threw me, so I was kind of looking for that inside pitch.”
Boerne went with small ball early and had three straight batters lay down bunts in the first inning before Maytum brought two of them home with her double.
BHS picked up another run in the third thanks to a Maytum RBI single after two more bunts put runners in scoring position and Boerne held a 3-0 lead after three.
“We knew that if we could get bunts down that could be a big factor in the game,” Pettibon said. “We went with small ball to start, went to long ball and then could go back to small ball if we needed to. The girls stuck to the game plan and made great adjustments at the plate and it worked out.”
When the Lady Hounds went with the long ball, they smashed a few that almost cleared the fence. Ava Nieto slammed her pitch into the left-field fence and may have put a dent in it.
Madlock, Maytum, Nieto and Taylor Wilson all smacked doubles off Hernandez, with most of those coming in the fourth through sixth frames.
Alice scored its first run in the fourth and made it 3-1, but Boerne answered in the bottom of the inning after Nieto hit the fence and scored on a double by Madlock for the 4-1 lead.
The Coyotes recorded another run in the fifth and Boerne’s advantage was cut in half at 4-2, but the Lady Hounds created some distance in the sixth with three runs after Riley Partin, Cameron Cooper and Nieto scored.
In the seventh, Alice put one runner on via a walk, but Rodriguez ended up striking out the side for her 11th, 12th and 13th strikeouts, the last coming against Hernandez to end the game.
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