Staff report
Hays Lady Rebel softball team’s deep run in the playoffs came to an end in the third round last week as Atascocita Eagles swept Hays in two games.
Atascocita defeated Hays by the scores of 6-3 and 12-2 in a best-of-three series.
The Eagles won game one Friday night in College Station with a late-inning comeback after the Lady Rebels had taken a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning.
Hays led 3-2 with just six outs remaining. But four of the Eagles’ runs in the game were unearned, as Hays hurt themselves with four errors in the ball game.
Atascocita’s first run of the game came in the first inning, when a pair of Hays errors allowed the Eagles to score without benefit of a hit.
The Lady Rebels tied the game with a run in the top of the fourth inning, then took a 3-1 lead by scoring twice in the fifth inning.
The Eagles, who started seven seniors, scored one run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Atascocita then pushed across four more unanswered runs to close the game.
Saturday’s game two of the series was eventful for reasons beyond softball.
The game, originally scheduled for College Station, was moved to Mumford, a Class A school with a turf field, in anticipation of rainy weather.
After arriving at Mumford, torrential rains came about an hour before game time, and the two teams attempted to wait until the weather moved through.
The rains, however, never stopped and the decision was made to move game to Waco Midway High School.
But Atascocita, which was ranked fourth in the nation at one point this year by USA Today, burst from the game with six runs in the first inning.
Hays had an imposing mountain to climb, but was unable to mount a comeback.
Hays’ first run of the game came courtesy of a booming solo home run to left field by senior Karina Rocha in the top of the second inning. Atasocita, whose lead was cut to 6-1, responded by putting the game away in the bottom of the inning.
The Eagles tallied another half-dozen runs in the bottom of the second frame. The Lady Rebels scored another run in the fifth, but could not make up the difference.
Hays, who advanced to the third round of the playoffs for the first time since reaching the state tournament in 2013 and 2014, finished the season with a 21-13 record.
