Atascocita knocks off top-ranked Katy to reach Class 6A state softball tournament.
Grotenhuis contributes RBI double in Game 3
After struggling in Game 1, Alyssa LeBlanc used her off-speed pitches to keep Atascocita off-balance through 13 innings Friday, including a nineinning Game 2 the Tigers won to force a decisive third game in their Class 6A Region III final.
But when LeBlanc started to tire, the highpowered Eagles finally erupted.
Lauren Bazan’s two-run double in the fifth inning of Game 3 ended LeBlanc’s evening. Lillie Grotenhuis added a run-scoring double off reliever Chloe Cobb, and the Eagles ousted the state’s top-ranked team with a 3-2 win at Crosby to advance to the state softball tournament.
“We didn’t try to make them out to be anything,” Atascocita coach Ashley Boyd said. “They’re another opponent; there’s nine of them on the field, just like there is for us, and the girls were relentless.”
Now the Eagles (33-7) are heading to state for the second time in three years.
“It’s the excitement all over again — just the thought of getting back and being in that final four,” Boyd said. “We had unfinished business when it came to playing Katy, after the way we went out last year (in the regional semis), and we’ve definitely got unfinished business waiting on us when we get back to Austin.”
Katy won the 6A championship in 2015. But after Saturday’s crushing Game 3 loss, the Tigers exited the playoffs in the fifth round for the third straight year.
“What makes it really tough is we had so many opportunities to put the game away — and had the right batters up there — and never could get the key hit,” Katy coach Kalum Haack said.
Cobb delivered the key hit in Game 2 — a threerun homer in the ninth inning of a 5-2 win that extended their season.
But she couldn’t stop the Eagles from doing the same in Game 3.
Grotenhuis doubled to plate Bazan was the gamewinner after Katy answered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Atascocita left the bases loaded in the fifth, after Jenika Lombrana fanned Tori Whillock to end the inning, and then Mikayla Garza, who started and went 52⁄3 innings in Game 1 — before she was relieved by Lombrana — returned in the sixth to end a threat by Katy. The freshman also retired the side in order in the seventh to send the Eagles to state.
“The freshman stepped in big right there,” Boyd said. “It took both of them to get it done.”