But Troy roughed up Coahoma starter Heather Newton starting in the fourth inning as the Trojanettes came from behind to beat the Bulldogettes 11-1 a semifinal of the UIL Class 2A state softball tournament at McCombs Field on Thursday.
The six-inning win placed No. 2 Troy (34-3) in the state championship game for the second time in three years. The Trojanettes will face Aubrey (31-2-1), which won the other semifinal 4-3 against Pattonville Prairiland, for the title at 11 a.m. Saturday.
After Newton (21-7) was staked to a 1-0 lead in the first and retired the side in order in the first three innings, Shelby Shepperd led off the fourth by crushing the ball down the left-field line for a double. Catherine Snow followed with a bunt double - when the shortstop was slow fielding the ball and wasn’t watching as Snow who ran to uncovered second base - but Shepperd was thrown out at the plate when she tried to score on a passed ball.
Michelle Ege hit a sacrifice fly to score Snow, and Troy put together a two-out rally when Desi Rauch tripled and scored on a McKenzie Sickler single.
Trojanettes coach Bobby Cervenka said Shepperd “ignited” the team with her double. Shepperd said it was just a matter of time before they figured out Newton.
“We were hitting, but we weren’t hitting real solid,” Shepperd said. “I think our second time up to bat, we started seeing her and started hitting her and it was off to the races from there.”
Cervenka said he was confident the Trojanettes would start hitting Newton eventually.
“I thought once the players saw that pitcher one time, they could hit her,” Cervenka said. “She throws at a different speed, with curveballs and everything, and it just took us a little time to catch up to it. I really thought at the time we’d catch up to it.”
The fourth was just a prelude of what was to come in the fifth and sixth, when the Trojanettes roughed up Newton and No. 1 Coahoma (31-7) for nine runs.
It started with a four-run fourth, highlighted by a two-run double from Shepperd and an RBI single from Sickler.
“We knew Coahoma was a good team, and we knew coming in every team at state was going to be good,” said Shepperd, who tied a 2A state tournament record with two doubles. “We knew we had to play our best, and that’s what we did.”
In the sixth, Cat Hernandez and Jenny Calhoun hit back-to-back singles, and Shepperd reached on an error to load the bases. Snow drew a bases-loaded walk to bring in a run, and Ege cleared the bases with a double. Rauch singled home Ege to end the game on the 10-run rule.
Ege (28-3) picked up the win, allowing one run and two hits, all in the first inning. She retired 16 of the last 17 batters she faced and struck out eight. She also went 2-for-3 with four RBI.
“At first we were kind of struggling, then we finally started hacking away and finally got her,” Ege said.
Aubrey reached the final by scoring four runs in the bottom of the seventh to overcome the three the Lady Chaparrals gave up in the top of the first. Cervenka’s team also had to erase a first-inning deficit, albeit only one run.
“I really don’t like getting down 1-0,” Cervenka said. “We have such high expectations, I really don’t like to give an inch.”
