Hawk’s One Act Play Goes 10 Innings in Win over Wimberley
The Hawks pointing to Tiare Kacir after getting the winning hit against Wimberley
The high drama was in action once again at the Hawk Softball Diamond, as Canyon Lake continued their suspenseful season winning in the 10th inning over Wimberley, 6-5.
CL was never in the lead in this game until it counted, the end of the third extra inning.
The bottom of the batting order did most of the damage on this night as Cameron Berger worked a one out walk in the 10th inning.
Berger has a little over 2 percent chance of walking as this free pass was a thing of beauty with that final result a win. It was Berger’s 4th walk in her career and 3rd one for this year in over 150 at bats.
Berger doesn’t like to walk, but would rather run, when she can be that winning score in extra innings.
Lizzy Henderson was next and had 2 hits already in this game but was called upon to sacrifice Berger over to second base which she did like a pro.
Now with Berger on second, it was time for Tiare Kacir to give Canyon Lake another district win with a sharp single (her second hit of the game) between second and first base to drive home the winning run on a 2 strike pitch and send the Texans home.
On what she was thinking on her at bat, Kacir said, “I need to get a hit and I was not looking for any super hard hit, I just wanted to move the batter….I rolled my ankle after the hit rounding first and I was just trying to get back to first…then Coach told me we scored and I was happy that we had won the game.”
Kacir is all smiles after her winning hit driving in a run in extra innings over the Texans, 6-5
Bottom of the batting order had Henderson with a 2-run single in the 6th inning to get CL back to within one run (4-3) and Kacir’s first single tied the score in the second inning (1-1).
When a team gets that type of production from whoever is in the lineup, then that will give teams a chance to make some noise in district play.
Alexis Robinson started the game and had held Wimberley to just one run through 4 innings and then a stretch in her next two stanza’s and one batter in the 7th caused a visit to the circle from Head Coach John Gallagher.
“I made the change because Alex (Robinson) was struggling,” Coach Gallagher surmised. “Lauren (Mentzer) had done great in her last game and with her change of pitches being different it worked out well.”
Mentzer gave up 2 hits and 2 walks in her four innings of work but when she needed a pitch she came through and kept Wimberley from crossing home plate.
In the 7th inning, when Mentzer was called upon, the Texans did scratch for one score but the runner was the responsibility of Robinson. That would be the only damage as the bases were left loaded for the funfilled drama with surprises being sprung with each at bat and pitch.
“I just want to show everybody that I am a good pitcher,” Mentzer started. “I just cleared my mind of everything.”
When asked if she can clear her mind of her Dad, Mentzer smiled, “Yes, I block out my Dad too, I hear things but I don’t listen and I just try to focus on doing what I need to do. It was stressful but I knew I could trust the team.”
Sophomore Carly Dubois added some stressful drama with a diving catch, when the first Texan at the plate in the top of the 10th inning drove a ball to right center gap and a diving catch kept Wimberley without any momentum to get runs.
Mentzer closed out her last inning throwing only 5 pitches as the next two Texan’s were routine ground outs.
“Oh goodness,” Dubois said with amazement. “To be honest, in those first couple of innings I had been exhausted and the whole team was pushing through for me and I knew I had to step up for the catch….the catch was not for me, but for the team.”
On the actual catch, “Oh my, I had to keep on running and I jumped up to dive back to catch the ball, that was scarier because I had not caught a ball like that before.”
Wow, what drama, as there were even those scary moments.
Canyon Lake is 3-2 in District 26-4A now and each game has come to the last inning before you know, ‘who done it’ drama, would end.
Right now, the Hawks have done it, in their last three games and with this ‘Act’ having so many subplots there could be a need for more seats at their next production when the next home game against Gonzales play starts, on April 7th.
The Hawks next game will be in La Vernia on Friday, where CL will meet a 3-2 Bear team that is tied for first with Canyon Lake and also fighting for District 26-4A superiority.
Go Hawks!!
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E Wimberley 1 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 5 9 3 CL Hawks 0 1 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 1 6 11 4 name ab r h bi bb so misc Carly Dubois 5 1 2 0 0 0 Kirsten Jones 5 1 1 0 0 1 Alexis Robinson 5 0 0 0 0 4 Kelsey Ahrens 3 1 2 1 1 1 hbp Kat Weber 4 1 1 1 0 0 hbp Lauren Mentzer 4 1 1 0 1 1 sb roe Cameron Berger 3 1 0 0 1 1 sac Lizzy Henderson 4 0 2 2 0 0 sac Tiare Kacire 5 0 2 2 0 0 totals 38 6 11 6 3 8 pitching ip h r er bb so W L Alexis Robinson 6 7 5 2 2 3 0 0 Lauren Mentzer 4 2 0 0 2 2 1 0 totals 10 9 5 2 4 5 pitches/strikes: Robinson 104/71 Mentzer 62/38
