Gatesville battled back from a deficit three times and seized control in the fifth for a 6-4 win over Fredericksburg on Thursday night in the first game of the Class 3A Region I softball championship series.
“I think our kids came out fired up,” Lady Hornets coach Michelle Bartch said. “I think they were a little discouraged with some errors early in the game. We’ve been playing defense pretty well.
“I got on them a little in the dugout. The girls were getting on each other. And I think a couple of our girls play better when they get mad.”
Gatesville (31-9) can clinch its first-ever berth in the University Interscholastic League state tournament at Texas’ McCombs Field from June 4-6 with a win over Fredericksburg (25-8) at 7 p.m. today at Marble Falls.
If the Lady Billies win, the teams will play a winner-take-all Game 3 at 5 p.m. Saturday at the same site.
Becca Augeri went 2-for-4 with two runs batted in, No. 6 hitter Cassie Morphet was 3-for-4 with two RBI and Leib and Kylie Nichols each went 2-for-3. Seven of the nine Lady Hornets had at least one hit.
Leib carried an 0.91 earned-run average into Thursday, but she allowed four runs - two earned - in the first three innings. She regrouped in the final four innings, allowing just one hit and no runs while recording six of her nine strikeouts.
“I knew mentally I had to stay stable and couldn’t do anything about the past innings,” said junior Leib (22-8), who raised her single-season strikeout record to 255. “I just played like it was the last game.”
The Lady Hornets trailed 4-3 heading into the fifth. No. 5 hitter Nichols led off with a single to left and Morphet reached on an error by first baseman Elisa Robledo to put runners on first and third with no outs.
After an out and a walk to Skye Truss to load the bases, No. 9 hitter Kaity Heck hit a grounder to Robledo. Instead of taking the out at first, Robledo fired home but the throw was late and Nichols scored to tie the game at 4.
With two outs, Augeri lined a 2-0 pitch to left-center field to score Truss for the go-ahead run. Gatesville added an insurance run in the sixth.
“She (Bartch) just said to let me do my thing,” Augeri said. “I was just looking for a good pitch.”
Both teams scored a run in the first and the Lady Billies scored another unearned run in the second for a 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, Heck, who struggled in the Region I semifinals against Levelland, lined a one-out triple and scored on Megan Chartier’s single to tie the game at 2. Chartier scored on Augeri’s groundout for a 3-2 lead.
“When you see our bottom of the lineup that was struggling last weekend hit the ball, everybody kind of gets a little confidence,” Bartch said. “You see those girls be successful and it’s a domino effect.”
Fredericksburg’s Ashley Rusche hit a two-run triple in the third to give the Lady Billies a 4-3 lead before the Lady Hornets rallied in the fifth en route to the victory.
“It takes a little pressure off you,” Bartch said about winning the opener. “But like I told the girls, ‘I don’t want you to sit back and settle and say, ‘Oh, we only have to win one out of the next two.’ I want them to play like tomorrow’s the last night."
cmeister@temple-telegram.com
