(Seguin) — The Hays Lady Hawks used some great plays in the field and timely hits at the plate to knock Seguin from the UIL Class 5A softball playoffs with an 8-1 win over the Lady Matadors at Seguin High School on Saturday afternoon.
Coupled with a 2-1 walk-off win on Friday night in Buda at Hays High School, the Lady Hawks won the Bi-District best-of-three series 2-0.
After scoring single runs in both the 1st and 2nd innings, Hays plated two runs in the third to jump out to a 4-0 lead thanks to back-to-back two-out RBI hits from Elliana Villegas and Emya Walker. With one out in the inning, Bella Gomez would single. She stole 2nd base before Akaysha Rodriguez lined out. Gomez would then come home on a Villegas single. Villegas would later score on Walker’s base hit.
The Lady Mats would get on the scoreboard in the bottom of the 5th. With two outs, Chloe Belicek got things started with a double down the left field line. Ryan Rangel would follow with a bomb to left field that would get caught up in a brisk wind and hit off the top of the wall to score Belicek. Jade Hernandez, who was called up from the junior varsity for the playoffs, worked a 3-2 count against Buda pitcher Alissa Rangel after Ryan Rangel’s hit but the Lady Hawk hurler was able to get Hernandez on a come-backer to end the threat.
In the 6th, Hays would send nine batters to the plate, scoring four to complete the scoring. Two of those runs were brought home by Rodriguez on a bases loaded single.
Seguin’s Kendall Hurt started the game in the circle and went three innings giving up four runs. Madyson Schultze pitched the final four innings and gave up four runs while striking out six including three in a row in the 5th inning with the bases loaded to escape a jam.
The game was the last for the two Seguin seniors, Ashlie Aguilar and Ryan Rangel. Both students earned four-year letters. Following the game, Seguin head coach John Garcia reflected on their Matador careers.
“You can’t say enough about those two, (they’ve) just been great for us for four years.” Garcia said. “Ryan’s pretty much broken every single-season hitting record that we have for the history of the school. She’s already asking me when does her name go up on those boards (at the softball field) and I said ‘as soon as I can’, trust me. And Ashlie has just been a stellar force at 2nd base for four years. Four-year starters (like Rangel and Aguilar) don’t come often.”
A relatively young team, Seguin finished the 2023 regular season as the 3rd place team in District 26-5A. Their overall record this season was 25-11-1. Hays, the 2nd place team out of District 25-5A, advances to the Area round where they will face South San Antonio.