by JASON GORDON
Few high school sports fans would have given Hays much of a chance to travel to Lockhart and post a win in softball, a sport the Lady Lions have been dominant in for the past decade.
A week ago, the Lady Rebs were sitting with an 0-3 record in District 27-4A, and it looked like Hays might have trouble finding its way out of the league cellar much less getting a win on the road against a Lockhart team that has lost only twice there in the past four seasons.
But with the score tied 5-5 heading to the top of the seventh inning Tuesday night, Hays’ Gabi Albarez nailed a two-RBI double to the wall in right field. She was thrown out at third trying to stretch the double into a triple, but the damage had been done, as Ashley Miller and Emily Opheim scored to give Hays a 7-5 lead.
Lady Rebel sophomore Clarissa Gonzales, who came on to pitch in relief in the fifth inning, closed the door on Lockhart in the seventh inning to lock up the win for Hays.
“This was huge,” Hays assistant coach Aaron Fuller said. “We knew we had to have somebody come up big for us in a big time situation, and that’s exactly what happened. We haven’t had that happen a lot this year so it was very exciting.”
Gonzales didn’t allow a single run in three innings of relief pitching.
“Clarissa Gonzales did an absolutely fabulous job,” Fuller said. “She shut the door on them. It was one of the biggest pitching performances we’ve had all year.”
Hays jumped on Lockhart early in the contest as the Lady Rebs opened things up and took a 5-0 lead with a four-run fourth inning. Opheim’s two-run single down the left-field line that plated Ashley Miller and Kinna Kinsey was the big shot, as Hays scored all its runs in the frame with two outs.
Lockhart rallied to tie the score 5-5 with three runs in the third and two more in the fifth, but the Lady Lions never could take the lead away from Hays, who became one of the few teams ever to hand Lions’ ace pitcher Taylor Rives a district loss.
The win over Lockhart, which gives Hays a 2-3 record in District 27-4A and puts the Lady Rebs back in the playoff picture, came three days after another thriller.
Hays picked up its first district win of the season with an 11-10 win at home against Clemens.
The Lady Rebels were trailing 10-7 heading to the bottom of the seventh when Hannah Ramsey’s two-RBI single cut the gap to 10-9. Mady Shannon then nailed a line drive to center that sailed over the fielder’s reach.
Ramsey scored easily, and Shannon turned on the jets and slid home just ahead of the attempted tag for a game-winning inside-the-park home run.
“Mady is really, really fast,” Fuller said. “I knew when she rounded second base before the centerfielder had the ball, there was no stopping her. I think there’s no doubt that win propelled us to the victory against Lockhart. It gave us so much confidence.”
