Lady Mustangs begin the playoffs with a 5-3 victory over Honeybees
ABILENE — One of the biggest questions about the Sweetwater-Stephenville Class 4A bi-district rematch was: Will the Lady Mustangs pick up where they left off after last year’s series sweep in two games?
The answer in Thursday’s Game 1 of the teams’ bestof-3 series was a qualified yes. Sweetwater’s 5-3 win at Abilene Cooper High School was a win — of course — but bore little resemblance to a year ago, when the Honeybees were defeated twice by the 10-run mercy rule.
Still, Sweetwater led from start to finish to get within one victory of claiming its fourth consecutive bi-district championship.
The Lady Mustangs (2014) also reached the prestigious’ 20-win plateau for the fourth straight year dating back to 2021.
While Stephenville never led, the Honeybees stayed within striking distance the entire game on Thursday. They made things less than comfortable for Sweetwater with two runs that cut the Lady Mustangs’ lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh despite not getting a hit.
Two walks and an error led to the first run and put a runner at third base, who scored on an RBI grounder for the second out.
Ashley then nailed down the win by striking out the next hitter to end the game.
The Lady Mustangs took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, before Stephenville pushed over a run in the bottom of the frame. It stayed 2-1 until the fifth when Sweetwater added a run, then two in the seventh for its biggest lead of 5-1.
Two-out RBI singles by Shelby Dent and Mabry Weaver provided the fourrun cushion.
But two of Stephenville’s first three batters drew a walk in the Honeybees’ last at bat and that along with the error made things tense again before Ashley finally put out the fire. Ashley allowed just four hits in seven innings and two of the three runs off her were unearned
Despie a dose of wildness (four hit batters and three walks), Ashley finished the contest with nine strikeouts and won her battle against Presley Gaitan, who gave up eight hits with 10 strikeouts and five walks.
Sweetwater got both of its first-inning runs following a single by Alyssa Aguilar and a walk to Kendall Daniel, after a throwing error on a Lexi Maestas grounder to third base allowed Aguilar and Daniel to score.
Both teams let opportunities slip away in the second through fourth innings, but Daniel provided an insurance run in the fifth when she drew a a one-out walk, then stole second and third with two outs before scoring on Weaver’s RBI single.
Weaver had three of the her team’s eight his and Daniel scored three runs. Daniel, Rebecca Castillo and Lauren Biera also hit safely for the Lady Mustangs.