Honeybees sting Sweetwater in Game 3 with walk-off hit in 10th

ABILENE — After winning on Thursday in the opener of a best-of-3 playoff series at Abilene Cooper, Sweetwater’s softball team was hoping to finish Stephenville off in two games yet again and claim another bidistrict championship.

But the Honeybees forced a third game by winning 9-4 on Friday, and then ended the Lady Mustangs’ season on Saturday with an 8-7 win in 10 innings on a basesloaded, walk-off single that completed a heartbreaking weekend.

Sweetwater finished its year with a 20-16 record. Stephenville (13-13) moves to the area round this week to face Sanger.

GAME 2 Stephenville 9, Sweetwater 4

Things began to unravel early in the second game as three Sweetwater errors led to four unearned runs in the first two innings.

The Lady Mustangs never recovered, though they did cut Stephenville’s lead to a run (4-3) after four innings.

But the Honeybees struck back quickly as they scored three runs in the fifth and two runs in the sixth to put the game away.

Sweetwater got on the board in the second when Shelby Dent was hit by a pitch, took third on a single by Mabry Weaver and came home on a sacrifice fly from Phoenix Walker. The Lady

Mustangs then pulled within 4-3 two innings later.

With two outs, Weaver and Rebecca Castillo both singled and they both came home when Walker hit a dribbler to third base that Stephenville misplayed into a two-run error.

After the Honeybees increased their lead to 7-3 in the fifth, Sweetwater cut the margin to 7-4 when Kendall Daniel reached on an error and scored on Lexi Maestas’ RBI double. But that was as close as the Lady Mustangs would get.

Marissa Garcia also had a single but Sweetwater had just five hits.

Mikayla Ashley started on the mound and went 4 1/3 innings, before Castillo replaced her and went the final 2 2/3.

GAME 3 Stephenville 8, Sweetwater 7 (10)

The rubber match of the series, unlike Game 2 on Friday, produced a fantastic start with four Sweetwater runs to lead things off in the first inning. But the ending wasn’t what any of the Lady Mustangs desired after the the teams fought tooth and nail for nearly three hours.

Stephenville began the bottom of the 10th with a walk and then three straight bunts to third base.

The first bunt sacrificed the lead batter to second base and the next two were infield hits that loaded the bases. Presley Gaitan then singled to left field to score the winning run.

Sweetwater got its first two runs when Weaver was hit by a pitch, Daniel was safe on an error and Maestas doubled them in. Maestas scored on Dent’s single and an error by the Stephenville right fielder that sent Dent to third. Castillo then hit an RBI grounder to score Dent for a 4-0 lead.

After Stephenville scored in the bottom of the first, the Lady Mustangs got the run back when Lauren Biera reached second on an error, stole third and then scored on Alyssa Aguilar’s RBI grounder in the top of the second. Stephenville cut it to 5-2 in the third inning, but Daniel homered in the fifth to restore the four-run lead again at 6-2.

But then for the first time Sweetwater ran into serious problems, as Stephenville scored four runs in its half of the fifth to tie it at 6.

Then it got even worse, as Stephenville went up 7-6 in the sixth after taking advantage of a three-base error and sacrifice bunt. But with the Lady Mustangs down to their last out, Daniel hit her second homer to tie it again at 7 and force extra innings.

Both teams threatened in the eighth and ninth and Sweetwater had multiple runners in both frames, but one was called out at third after a Weaver single.

Sweetwater had nine hits including three by Daniel and two by Maestas. Castillo pitched the entire game and five of the runs scored off her were unearned.