SW stings Bees to start playoffs
BRECKENRIDGE — Game 1 of the playoffs for Sweetwater’s softball team Thursday saw no change in the kind of numbers the Lady Mustangs have put up in recent weeks.
Sweetwater, which ended District 5-4A play with nine straight wins, made it 10 in a row by beating Stephenville, 13-2, in six innings to begin the best-of-3 bi-district series. The Lady Mustangs (20-8) have five 10-run rule wins during the current streak, and three straight. It was their eighth win in which they’ve scored in double digits.
But the key to the streak has been improved pitching. Sweetwater allowed 18 runs total in its first two district wins over Snyder and Big Spring, after a district-opening 14-3 loss to Levelland. The team has allowed 18 total runs in the eight wins since then, and never more than four in a game in the last six.
However, it does help to score a lot of runs, and the Lady Mustangs had one or more in all six innings while building an early 7-0 lead after two innings against Stephenville. Capping that start was Kendall Daniel’s three-run homer that came after a Bethanee Rodriguez single and Rebecca Castillo walk. The four-run first featured RBI singles by Daniel, Mabry Weaver and Shelby Dent, plus Hanna Vera’s RBI grounder.
The Honeybees cut the lead to 7-1 in the top of the third, but two Sweetwater runs made it 9-1 and four more runs finished it off.
Mikayla Ashley avoided serious trouble in the circle, allowing just six hits and two runs with eight strikeouts and two walks, while stranding eight runners.
Ashley had just one 1-2-3 inning, but she was very efficient at working out of jams in the third, fifth and sixth innings when Stephenville left a total of six runners on base but totalled just two runs off Ashley.
Coach Lacy Gregory said she was looking forward to finishing the job on Friday in Breckenridge.
“It was a great win (on Thursday),” she said.
“Mikayla Ashley threw a great game and we attacked good pitches offensively. We look forward to carrying this momentum into (Friday’s game).”
Weaver had four hits, the last one walking off the win in the sixth. She and Daniel (6) combined for nine RBI. Daniel and Rodriguez had three hits and Rodriguez and Castillo each scored three times. Daniel and Weaver scored two runs and Dent and Vera had two RBI. Dent, Castillo and Lauren Biera had two hits and Vera one for Sweetwater, which had 17 in all. Also scoring were Biera, Jenika Fuentes and Marissa Garcia.