By Moses Leos III

There wasn’t much that kept Hays Lady Rebel Karina Rocha from flashing an ear-to-ear grin Tuesday as she trotted around the bases following a walk-off home run to dead centerfield. 

Rocha’s monstrous two-run blast provided the exclamation point in Hays’ 15-5 run rule win over the Killeen Ellison Lady Eagles in five innings. 

But for Rocha, her prodigious clout came as a big surprise. 

“I wasn’t expecting to hit that homerun. I was just expecting to make contact,” Rocha said. “Once I noticed it was gone, it was pretty exciting. Ending the game was even more exciting.” 

Hays began by plating a run in each of the first two innings to take a 2-0 lead. 

Following an Ellison run in the third, Hays responded by scoring four runs in the bottom of the third inning, aided by three leadoff walks. 

Hays broke the game open with a five run salvo in the next inning. The Lady Rebels led 11-1 and were on the verge of closing out the ball game. 

According to Rocha, all it took for Hays was one person to notch a hit. 

“It just got contagious,” she said. “We all took charge. It took one person to start it off and we kept it going.” 

Hays head coach Lisa Cone said the team was able to make necessary adjustments from their first at bat. It was something she said, “is what we want to see more of.” 

“Hopefully that can carry over into the second round of district,” Cone said. 

But Ellison rallied for three runs in the fifth inning to close the gap. They did so after a Lady Rebel error allowed Ellison to extend the inning. 

“We should have been out of the inning there,” Cone said. “We have to make sure we do our job defensively as well. Especially when they get their better hitters up to bat.” 

But Rocha stepped up in the clutch, driving home the winnings runs in walk-off fashion. 

As the Rebels enter back into district play, Cone said Tuesday’s win was important toward building confidence on offense. 

“I know those kids can perform much better,” she said. “So this was the kind of hitting we want to see.” 

Hays pitcher Nadia Netek earned the win, going five innings and giving up only five runs.

*In our print version, we reported Hays scoring four runs in the fourth inning. Hays scored four runs in the third inning. In addtion, we reported Nadia Netek pitched seven innings; Netek instead went five innings. We apologize for the errors.