Lady Apaches end season with bi-district loss

JUDSON — At this point of the season, if a team isn’t playing near-perfect, mistakes will be hard to overcome. The Lady Apaches found themselves in that position on Friday as they gave up six runs in the first inning of an 8-2 loss to Boerne in the bi-district round of the playoffs.

“They played their hearts out, we just got behind in that first inning, [it] was tough battling back,” Gonzales’ head coach Sam White said. “[We] left a lot of people on base. We didn’t get the timely hit. We had opportunities. But I’m proud of those seniors, they played good all year long.”

The first six batters reached based for Boerne, whether it was via hit, error or hit by pitch. Those base runners were all able to score, though eventually the Lady Apaches were able to stop the bleeding at six runs.

But the team was able to get things going in the second as senior Karina Vara hit a home run ball in the top of the second inning. Kendra Williams followed with a base hit and eventually scored to cut the lead to four. Unfortunately, Gonzales would leave two runners on stranded.

“When [Boerne] had bases loaded they had the timely hit and we didn’t,” White noted. “That’s the difference in the game.”

Gonzales had a total of nine runners left stranded in the game. Boerne had three.

Carla Torres pitched all six innings, giving up eight hits, eight runs, striking out two batters and hitting one batter by pitch.

At the plate, Vara led the way going 2-for-4 with a home run and a single. Jiseala “Chella” Longoria went 2-for-3 with two singles. Skylea went 1-for-3 with a walk, Kendra Williams went 1-for-3 with a run and Sydney Clack went 1-for-1 with a walk.

With the 8-2 loss, the Lady Apaches finish the season as bi-district finalists, fourth in District 27-4A. The team will lose eight seniors.

“I knew them since they were sophomores…I’ve been with them a couple of years and they work hard,” White said. “They’ve been a joy to work with.”

With losing so many seniors, the Lady Apaches will have plenty of spots to fill in next season’s varsity team, though due to early injuries White was able to work in younger players and get that experience

“They helped us get through the tough times,” he said. “When we got everybody healthy...we had a pretty good last four district games. We just tried to battle through that.”