Canyon Lake Meets Buzz Saw in Playoffs

The Canyon Lake Hawks hit a buzz saw in their first play-off try against Lampasas Badgers, losing two games, April 29-30.
A little history first: Lampasas was undefeated in district last season in 4A with the same team. The difference was their pitcher quitting before the season started. The season had a learning curve for a team that had played together since their eight grade year.

The Hawks do have seniors, but most of the team is Sophomore ladened and the difference in those two years was very pronounced.

The first game was a ‘comedy’ of errors as Canyon Lake allowed the first four Badgers to reach base via a miscue. When the carnage was over Lampasas had accumulated five base runners by errors, three singles, two walks, and a double.

The 9-0 deficit was too great of a hill for the Hawks to climb.

“Uncharacteristic errors,” Head Coach John Gallagher said. “We are still young, and this was our first playoff game.

Senior Tiffany Arredondo reached base on the only Lampasas error in the fourth inning. As Tiffany had done for her career, she promptly stole two bases and scored on a wild pitch.

Pitcher Missy Romero had two walks in the game. Romero had not walked a batter in the past three games and her control was not as sharp.

The first inning alone Romero had 57 pitches. To put that in perspective, the last three games of the regular season, she had an 88 pitch average for the game.

Good news was the other three hits of the game came off the bats of players that will be in uniform for another year.

Stay five nights and get the sixth night free!

Lampasas scored three runs in the top of the fifth inning to run rule the home team.

The second game was played in Lampasas the next day and the Badgers jumped on the Hawks again, scoring eight runs in the first two innings.

Canyon Lake did slow down the Badgers, but once again found themselves looking at too many runs to make a comeback.

Junior Missy Romero reached base on a hit over the short stop in the fourth inning. She was followed by Senior Katy Payne who hit a rocket to the short stop reaching base on an error.

Sophomore Lillimae Daily knocked Romero in on a fielders choice.

The Hawks had only one error in the second game, but the hitting of the Badgers was tough and kept the pressure on for the Canyon Lake the entire game.

“The seniors for Lampasas went to Austin once a week to the batting cages,” Coach Gallagher said. “Their coach said that he never had seen dedication like that, they did it all on their own and they know each other like a book and feed off of each other.”

Canyon Lake can now look at the future and know they too can do much better in the years to come.

First Game    1    2   3   4    5     R    H    E
Lampasas     9    2   1    1    3    16   12    1
CL Hawks     0   0   1    0    0     1     4    7
LOB-LHS 7, CL 7. DP- LHS 1.
SB-T. Arredondo (2).

Pitching           IP  H   R  ER  BB  SO  W    L     NP
M. Romero       4   9   13    6    2      3   17     9     115
Blackburn         1   3    3     2    0      0   —     —      22
PB-Katy Payne (1).
Pitches: BB/SO-Romero 40/85; Blackburn 4/18.

Second Game   1  2  3  4  5    R   H   E
CL Hawks        0  0  0  1  0    1    2     1
Lampasas         3  5   1  1  1   11   13    1
LOB-LHS 7; CL 3.

Pitching          IP  H   R   ER  BB  SO  W     L      NP
M. Romero      5  13   1    9       2     0    17   10      88
WP-Romero (4). Pitches: BB/SO-Romero 37/51.