In a drama-filled opener in the softball playoffs, Deer Park outlasts Katy in 10.
Deer Park made up for four quiet innings at the plate with two big frames to take its first lead.
It lasted until Katy’s final at-bat — at the time. Then a crazy inning that started with Tori Whillock bunting and ended with her crossing home without breaking stride turned the UH softball field into anything but quiet. The Tigers tied it with two outs in the seventh, sending the Class 6A Region III final series opener to extra innings.
But the last momentum swing went to Deer Park as Sara Vanderford’s RBI double in the 10th scored Maleah Olvera, who reached on an error, and gave the Deer a 4-3 win Thursday night.
“We made mistakes to give them their runs. They made some mistakes to give us our runs,” said Katy coach Kalum Haack, whose team tied the game in the seventh in large part from a Deer Park error. “We made the last one, therefore we’re talking about our backs against the wall (Friday).”
The series continues at 5 p.m. Friday back at UH. A Deer Park win in Game 2 completes the sweep and sends the Deer (37-6) back to the state tournament for the fourth time since 2012.
If Katy (34-4) forces a decisive third game, it will begin 30 minutes following Game 2. The Tigers are aiming for their second state berth in three years, winning it all in 2015.
“You put the pressure on them to win two and not make any mistakes,” Deer Park coach Carrie Austgen said.
A Deer Park mistake gave Katy life in the seventh inning.
The Tigers were down to their final out with leadoff batter Whillock at the plate. Whillock dropped down a bunt which Deer third baseman KK Morado fielded. The first-base umpire shielded Vanderford as she ran toward the bag, and the ball got by the second baseman and rolled all the way to the right-field corner.
Whillock never slowed, and Haack started waving her home as soon as the sophomore raced past second base. She crossed home with no throw to the plate, igniting the red-clad faithful and silencing a stunned Deer Park home side.
“It was just ugly,” Austgen said. “It happens.”
Said Haack: “We were going to do it anyway, even if they would have hit the cutoff. It would have been a bang-bang play, but we were going to do it anyway because we weren’t hitting the ball well enough. What do you have to lose?”
Despite only managing multiple hits in one inning (fifth), Katy led 2-0 through four. The Tigers scored both with two outs in the first, with both runners reaching on walks. Alyssa Leblanc’s RBI double plated one run and an infield error brought home the second.
The Deer stranded two in the bottom half but didn’t challenge Leblanc until the fifth. Pinch hitter Courtney Plocheck singled past a drawn-in infield, scoring Ash Wade, and Hernandez followed with another two batters later to tie the game.
In the sixth, Vanderford followed an Edmoundson double with one of her own to put the Deer up 3-2.
Her second double scored Olvera and moved Deer Park to within one victory of a state tournament berth.
“I was looking for something I could drive,” Vanderford said. “It was there so I just swung.”