Published: May 17, 2008 01:12 am            

The one that got away

Lady Hornets make three costly errors in 2-1 loss to Nederland

PEARLAND — For 16 outs Friday at Dawson High School, Huntsville played the style of softball that knocked off the state’s second-ranked team, Brenham, in the regional quarterfinals last week.

However, a couple of costly errors by the Lady Hornets in the sixth and one more in the seventh proved to be the difference as Nederland pushed home a pair of runs to claim game one of a best-of-three Class 4A regional semifinal series 2-1 with a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh.

Lady Bulldog senior Caitlin Austin scattered three hits while striking out 11 in seven innings pitched. All three hits surrendered were doubles.

Huntsville pitcher Shelby Smith was equally impressive, yielding three unearned runs while the Lady Bulldogs chipped away just four hits.

“We’re playing 14 innings (today). We kind of like it that way,” Lady Hornets coach Nancy Hopper said. “Some untimely errors really cost us tonight. I can count three errors that cost us two runs. Tomorrow’s another day.

“We’ve gone through the playoffs and had a few errors here or there, but we’ve done really well at minimizing them.”

The Lady Hornets (18-16) threatened in their first at-bat when Nena Gibson laced a double into the left-center field gap but Austin rebounded to strike out Tayler Gray.

Austin gave Huntsville a heavy dose of her screwball and struck out five straight batters in the second and third innings.

“(Austin) certainly struck some of us out,” Hopper said. “We made contact pretty early in the game, and at the end of the game we had a couple of bombshells that prolonged the game.

“The girls are excited and know that it’s certainly not over. Some of the kids that were missing the pitches were talking about them after the game. They’ll be ready to go.”

Austin issued a one-out walk in the fourth to Gibson, but Gray popped to third for the second out and Gibson was caught stealing second to end the inning.

Nederland (26-8-1) threatened with a pair of hits in the third. With one out, Katelyn Worsham singled up the middle for the Lady Bulldogs’ first hit of the game. Ashleigh Kuhn kept the rally going with a single up the middle.

Shortstop Sara Vaughn fielded a roller off the bat of Layken Richard to retire the side.

Nederland got on the board first in the sixth.

Mayer was retired on an attempted drag bunt for the first out. Kuhn followed with a single up the middle and took second on an errant throw by Gibson on an attempted pickoff throw.

Richard laid down a sacrifice bunt to push her to third, and Kuhn broke the scoreless tie when Vaughn fielded a ground ball by Lindsey Rossi and overthrew her first baseman.

Smith got Austin to ground out to second for the third out and keep the deficit at one.

Down to their last out, the Lady Hornets rallied in dramatic fashion.

Gray sliced a double to deep center, sliding just ahead of the tag at second. She made it 1-1 when Michelle McGill knocked a similar shot that sailed over Richard’s head in center. The Lady Hornets’ rally ended when Smith grounded out to second.

The Lady Bulldogs pushed home the run they needed in the bottom of the seventh.

Jordan Bodin led off the frame with a single that fell into shallow right and took second on a wild pitch. A fielding error by Vaughn put runners at the corners with no outs.

“I think we had one and just lost that little bit of focus,” Hopper said. “If that happens, then we’ll make errors.”

Tayler Trojcak lifted a high fly ball to left that was deep enough to plate the winning run and Nederland took a 1-0 series edge heading into today’s 5 p.m. game two at the same field. A third game will follow 30 minutes after, if necessary.

“Shelby did an awesome job in the circle for us,” Hopper said. “She’ll be back ready to go, all 14 innings. We’re excited.”

The winner of this series will face Barbers Hill (27-8) in the regional finals next week. After blanking the Lady Bears 1-0 on Tuesday, the Lady Eagles posted their second straight shutout over Montgomery, winning game two 6-0.

        

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