Lake Travis has a lineup to fear
Top of batting order making pitchers pay in postseason.
As a pitcher, Lake Travis right-hander Zoe Bacon has no interest in facing her softball team’s lineup.
“If I was facing our lineup, I’d be really stuck,” said Bacon, a senior who has compiled a 20-7 record this season. “You can’t walk everyone. You can only put so many girls on base and throw so many pitches out of the zone.”
Several opposing pitchers have tried that approach against Lake Travis, generally with little success. The Cavaliers have totaled 59 runs in three rounds of the Class 6A playoffs, and on Friday they will face Waco Midway in a one-game regional-semifinal playoff.
Last week, Lake Travis (25-9) won a best-ofthree series against stateranked Humble Atascocita, scoring a combined 14 runs in its two victories. In the deciding Game 3, Aspen Howie smacked a game-winning solo homer in the sixth inning as the Cavaliers pulled out a 6-5 victory. It was the fourth game-winning hit in seven playoff games for Howie, who has four homers in this postseason.
“I guess all the practice is paying off,” she said this week. “I honestly haven’t been doing anything different. ... I don’t know what’s making this happen.”
Howie, a sophomore second baseman, has raised her batting average above .500 with her recent outburst. She boasts a team-high 15 doubles this season to go with 38 RBIs and 50 runs scored. Her impressive production as the Cavaliers’ No. 2-hole hitter is typical of the top of Lake Travis’ lineup.
Leadoff hitter Brycen Blinco, a sophomore shortstop, has scored a team-high 55 runs while batting .421 with eight homers. Bacon, batting in the third spot, has 11 home runs and 38 RBIs, and clean-up hitter Alys- sa Dickens, a senior center fielder, has a teamhigh 46 RBIs, 10 doubles and seven homers.
It’s no wonder that in a bidistrict playoff series against Rouse, Bacon was walked 10 times in 14 plate appearances. In a one-game area-round playoff against Conroe Oak Ridge, Howie was intentionally walked after homering in her first atbat.
“Teams have tried walking around that part of our lineup,” said firstyear Cavaliers coach Chris Beck, a former assistant at Stony Point. “That’s the good thing about our lineup. If you walk one, the hitter behind them is going to make you pay for it.”
The Cavaliers’ postseason run comes as a surprise after the team finished second in District 14-6A, two games behind Westlake.
“You could say it’s a Cinderella team,” Howie said. “Some people didn’t even know we had a softball program, and we’re just going along and kicking butt. We’re kind of famous around the school now.”
For her part, Bacon said she’s not surprised by her team’s postseason results, which include two one-run victories.
“I think this is what we all expected at the beginning of the year,” she said. “I don’t know if everyone else expected it, but we’ve been working for this moment. We love having our backs against the wall.”