Deer Park wins final 2 games by limiting Kingwood’s bats
Kingwood boasts plenty of big bats, producing three home runs in the regional quarterfinals. But the offense never put together a big inning Friday.
Deer Park pitchers Erin Edmoundson and Maddie Nelson held the Mustangs to five one-run frames across two games, and the Deer rallied from their Game 1 setback to win 4-3 and 4-2 at home, clinching the best-of-three series.
“They played with confidence,” Deer Park coach Carrie Austgen said. “It’s a series for a reason.”
Kingwood (29-6) took the opener 2-1 Wednesday on Haley Lee’s two-run homer. That was the team’s last multi-run inning in the Class 6A Region III quarterfinals.
Edmoundson picked up both wins Friday.
She went 52⁄3 innings in Game 3, giving up solo homers to Alicia DeLeon and Brooke Johnson, but not much else.
Nelson earned the save in the series clincher.
“We want to win the inning,” Austgen said. “That’s the strategy — don’t give them the big inning.”
Alyssa Hernandez supplied all four RBIs for the Deer in Game 3. She hit a run-scoring single in the third inning for a 1-1 tie and a three-run double for a 4-1 advantage in the fifth.
“When she’s on, she’s a little firecracker,” Austgen said.
The Deer escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh to win Game 2 and force a decisive third meeting.
Edmoundson earned the win in 42⁄3 innings of relief. She replaced Nelson in the third and held the Mustangs to one run on four hits with three walks.
Madison Lindsey took the loss. The junior allowed four runs on five hits with five strikeouts and four walks on 106 pitches through six innings.
The Deer reached full counts on five of their first six at-bats and made Lindsey throw 43 pitches in the first inning, with Maleah Olvera hitting a two-run homer and Sara Vanderford tripling and stealing home for a 3-0 lead.
“She’s leading our team in home runs, and every- body looks at her and says, ‘She’s not a home run hitter,’ and then pop, there she goes,” Austgen said. “So we were waiting for that to come.”
Kingwood cut the deficit to 3-2 on Amanda Cleaver’s run-scoring groundout in the second and Jourdyn Campbell’s RBI single in the third. But Deer Park picked up an insurance run in the bottom of the third, with Hernandez doubling and scoring on Edmoundson’s squeeze for a 4-2 lead.
Cassidy Lee plated DeLeon in the fifth for the Mustangs’ final run.
Kingwood outhit Deer Park 16-12 in the two games combined but stranded 19 baserunners.
“We played really well, we just didn’t execute when we had runners on base,” Kingwood coach Lauren Hendrix said. “We left too many runners on base and ended up choking when it was clutch time.”