Tigers take 6A regional quarterfinal opener
Raines’ grand slam, complete game by Hines lead the way
Chassety Raines was forced to watch most of this season from the dugout after an offseason knee injury.
She’s making the most of every at-bat now.
The senior hit her second grand slam in the playoffs Thursday, sparking Klein Collins’ 14-4, six-inning win over Spring in Game 1 of their regional quarterfinals series at Bridgeland.
“She has battled a lot, and she’s just continued to move on,” Collins coach Audra Troutman said. “She is one of those kids who’s resilient, and she wants it and she’s hungry for it, so she’s got what it takes.”
The first one didn’t satisfy her either.
Raines almost singlehandedly ousted Round Rock with last week’s grand slam in the area round, lifting the Tigers to a 5-4 Game 2 win and series sweep. Her second postseason grand slam, which easily cleared the 20-foot-high wall in center field, gave them a 5-0 lead in the first inning Thursday.
And she only returned to the lineup for their last district game against Klein.
“With bases loaded, (she) comes up big,” Troutman said. “She did it in the series against Round Rock, and a low inside pitch — that’s hers and she took it.”
Collins still had work to do to take the game.
The Lions, who rolled through District 16-6A, going 14-0, cut the deficit to 6-4 on Chloe Gomez’s two-run triple in the fourth. But they left the based loaded in the third and again in the fifth, keeping them from completing a comeback. They stranded a costly 12 baserunners in the game.
“They made great adjustments and did their jobs,” Spring coach Julie Wyrick said. “They made the plays when they needed to, and they got the base hits or put the ball in play when they needed to.”
The Tigers answered Spring’s two-run fourth with four runs in the bottom of the inning, including two bases-loaded walks, a run-scoring single by Mia Cantu and Araya Williams’ sacrifice fly.
Then it was only a matter of the Tigers would finish the game early.
They did with a three-run sixth inning, capped by Katy Schaefer’s sacrifice fly to right.
“The game plan was to come in and be patient, see their pitches and not just swing at anything,” Troutman said.
Collins finished with 14 hits to Spring’s 12.
Kenedy Hines picked up the win in the circle, going the distance with six strikeouts and five walks on 136 pitches.
“They’re a good hitting team also, and we knew that,” Troutman said. “We knew coming in that our defense was going to have to do the job, and they had some hits and they had bases loaded a couple times on us, and our defense prevailed and did what we needed to do to get those outs.”
The teams resume their series with Game 2 at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Bridgeland. Game 3 follows Game 2, if necessary.
“We are who we are, and we have to come out and be who we are (Friday),” Wyrick said. “We’re not going to be able to change that. If we start trying to be somebody else, we start trying to do things different than what we do, it’s going to be an epic failure.”