KYLE – The Hays Hawks softball team squared off against the East Central Hornets this weekend, culminating in a tense three-game series before the Hawks won, crowning them as area champions. The games were played on May 6 at San Marcos High School and May 7 at Marion High School.
On Friday, the team started off with a lengthy match with the Hornets nabbing an early lead. The Hawks persevered, and almost pulled a win later in the 7th inning but fell one run short, losing the game 5 – 6.
“Well, I feel like the umpire squeezed us a little bit at the beginning of the game, and my pitcher had to put the ball right over the plate, and we had to make adjustments, and we did make those adjustments,” said head coach Lisa Cone. “We just stuck with it and battled back and, you know, we just fought back. I’m proud of their fight and they’re gonna come back tomorrow and fight.”
The Hawks were unbowed and played again on Saturday, where they evened the score and won their second game. The third game followed immediately after the first, with both teams playing hard to see who would win the tiebreaker. In the end, the Hawks took home the victory, with the score ending 6 – 4.
“Right now we’ve got some good things going our way, we’ve been stringing some hits together to put some runs across, and we’ve played amazing defense, and that’s helped a lot in the last few games,” Coach Cones said.
The team is ecstatic about going forward in the season. Alongside their victory, four of the players were recognized by the Texas High School Coaches Association (THSCA); Megan Kelnar, Katie Noble and Makayla Rodriguez were all selected to participate on the THSCA’s second team, while Erin Doherty was honorably mentioned. The Hawks will be moving into the regional quarterfinals following this victory. For more information, and to see when their next game is, you can follow the Hays Athletics Twitter at twitter.com/GOHAYSHAWKS.
