Lady Bucks win first district title since 2001

Lady Bucks win first district title since 2001 News Staff Tue, 04/23/2024 - 4:13 pm   The Lady Buckaroos softball team won their first district championship since 2001 after finishing the District 8-3A schedule with a 12-2 record. The championship was earned following a 10-0 win Friday, April 19 over Peaster. Photo/Mike Williams By Mike Williams news@breckenridgeamerican.com The Breckenridge Lady Bucks celebrated their seniors in a big way Friday, April 19. After honoring their six seniors, the team earned a district championship with a 10-0 win over the Lady Greyhounds. The championship sets the Lady Bucks up with a bi-district meeting with Iowa Park. The bi-district playoff will take place with games one and two taking place April 25-26 at Hogan Field in Graham. Both games will start at 5 p.m. If necessary, game three will take place Saturday, April 27 at Hogan Field with a time to be determined. All but one Lady Buckaroo recorded either a hit or a run during the five-inning, run-rule-shortened game. Emma Williams led off for the Lady Bucks in the bottom of the first inning with a line drive to center field. After stealing third base during Olyvia Perez’s at-bat, Williams scored on a sacrifice fly by Perez. The Lady Greyhounds knew what kind of threat Joni Jackson could be from the batter’s box and elected to not give Jackson a chance to hit the ball. She was intentionally walked in each of her three at-bats, including with one out in the first inning. The inning ended with Jackson left stranded on first base. The Lady Bucks were left scoreless in the second inning but found their offense again in the bottom of the third. Ryleigh Cowan led off the bottom of the third inning with a ground ball single to left field. She eventually advanced to third base with a ground out by Williams and a sacrifice bunt by Perez. Jackson was walked for a second time to give the Lady Bucks runners on first and third base. This time Raegan Robinson made the Lady Greyhounds pay. She followed Jackson’s intentional walk with a three-run home run over left field to take a 4-0 lead. With two outs in the fourth inning, the Lady Bucks added three more runs. Chloe Whitmire, Charlie Salazar and Cowan each reached base with singles. With two outs, Perez hit a double to left field that brought home Whitmire and Salazar. Following Jackson’s third and final walk of the game, Robinson hit a line drive single to center field that brought home Cowan. A lapse on the basepaths led to the third out at home plate with the Lady Bucks leading 7-0. It was with two outs in the fifth inning that the Lady Bucks ended the game. Whitmire reached first base on a fielder’s choice with Castillo forced out at second base. Whitmire then advanced to second base on a two-out line drive to left field by Salazar. Walks drawn by Cowan and Williams loaded the bases on two occasions with Whitmire scoring on the walk drawn by Williams to take an 8-0 lead. Perez ended the game in walk-off fashion with a hard ground ball to right field. Salazar and Cowan scored the final two runs. Following Cowan’s game-ending run, the Lady Bucks’ dugout cleared to celebrate the team’s first district championship since 2001. Lady Bucks head coach Cynthia Hererra, who coached twice in the state tournament for Stamford, said earning a district championship in Breckenridge is a special moment. “This one’s just different,” she said. “I had a lot of talent, (division I college) players and (division II college) players and they were phenomenal. Over here, I mean, it was just different. I have been incredibly, incredibly hard on them and I’ve loved them even harder. I just saw something in them that they probably didn’t even see in themselves. I just knew that when I got here I wanted to turn this program around. …I wanted to take them to new heights. Last year we struggled …this year we’ve just been able to relax and enjoy each other. All the work, all the tears, just to see it getting rewarded and it’s paid off is awesome. It’s incredible.” Perez, Robinson and Cowan each had multi-hit games for the Lady Bucks. Perez and Robinson combined for nine of the Lady Bucks’ 10 RBIs in the game. Whitmire gave up three hits and one walk. She struck out 11 batters. The Lady Bucks finished the regular season with a 23-10-1 (12-2 district) record. Before the game Williams, Whitmire, Carlee Stewart, Salazar, Mia Castillo and Cowan were honored by their teammates and Coach Hererra. “They just play so well together and they get along,” Hererra said. “I know they’re girls, but they get along. They fight, but they love each other even harder. The thing is not all of them love softball but they love to compete and they love to compete next to each other. That’s all I can ask for in a coach.” Sports Log in to post comments