(Seguin) – Seguin is only a half-back of the fourth playoff seed in the District 26-5A softball race after avenging an earlier district loss with a 9-5 home win over Kerrville-Tivy on Tuesday.
The Matadors trailed 1-0 after Tivy’s Jordan Joy launched a solo home run over the center field fence, but Seguin erupted for eight runs in the fifth inning to take control of the game.
Ashlie Aguilar led off the frame with a single, Layla Salazar and Vanessa Sanchez each walked, and freshman shortstop Chole Belicek drove in Aguilar and Salazar for the tying and and go-ahead runs with a base hit.
“She plays with a lot of passion,” Seguin head coach John Garcia said of Belicek. “Sometimes she’s too hard on herself, but I tell you, she’s going to be fun to watch the next three years.”
Sanchez and Belicek each scored on RBI groundouts by Camryn Rios and Alllie Kubena. Graylin Salazar doubled, Allie Mize walked, and Summer Flores reached on an error, and each of those players scored on wild pitches. Aguilar walked in her second plate appearance of the inning and scored Seguin’s eighth run on Layla Salazar’s RBI single.
Garcia credits his hitters for showing patience against the Tivy ace Joy after stranding six runners in the first four innings.
“We started getting better at making better choices, what we were swinging at and what we weren’t swinging at,” the coach said. “Her pattern, we saw in the last game, she pretty much did the same thing, so we’ve seen it enough that we should have done that. I’m not trying to say anything about her not being a good pitcher, because she is. She shut us down last game and almost this game, but once we finally, finally made the adjustments we were supposed to, we had that breakthrough inning.”
Graylin Salazar doubled in Kubena to put Seguin in front 9-1 in the sixth.
Tivy showed some fight with four runs in the seventh, but Seguin used force plays at the plate to induce the second and third outs and snuff out the Antlers’ rally.
Sophomore right hander Kendall Hurt earned the complete-game win in the pitcher’s circle. She struck out two with one walk and allowed seven hits. Only two of the five runs she gave up were earned.
Sanchez turned an unassisted double play at third base in the fifth to help Hurt survive a leadoff triple by Tivy’s Olivia Ortiz.
The win moves Seguin to 7-4 in district play, 16-9 overall. The Mats are a half-game back of fourth-place Tivy (8-4) and salvaged a 1-1 split in the head-to-head series between the teams.
Buda-Johnson stands alone in first place with a 10-2 district record. Dripping Springs is a half-game back of the Jaguars in second at 9-2, and New Braunfels-Canyon occupies the third seed with a 9-3 district mark.
Seguin looks to avenge a 3-2 district loss to Johnson on March 14 with a home win over the Jaguars this Friday at 7 p.m. The game will air live on KWED 1580-AM and Seguintoday.com. Pre-game coverage starts at 5:50.