BI-DISTRICT BLUES

By Manuel Azocar III - Sports Writer/Managing Editor | May 6, 2024

CLASS 4A I-DISTRICT SOFTBALL

Ingleside sweeps Pearsall in first round best-of-three series, 3-1, 15-2.

A missed opportunity in game one, followed by a late game collapse in game two saw Pearsall drop its Class 4A softball bi-district best-of-three series to Ingleside 2-0 Thursday and Saturday, April 25 and 27 in Three Rivers.
Ingleside held on for a 3-1 victory in game one on Thursday then broke open a tight game in the final two innings Saturday afternoon to take a 15-2 decision and earn the playoff sweep.
“The game was close up to the sixth, at 4-2,” PHS Head Coach Melissa Sanchez said. “We had a few errors that really ran away on us. The girls played good until they started running low on steam.”

Unlike a year ago when Pearsall went extra innings to top Rockport-Fulton in game one of their bi-district series to eventually win, and rallied from a game one loss and went extra innings in game two to edge Zapata in a come-from-behind victory in that series, the Lady Mavs couldn’t muster the same kind of magic.
“The postseason is all about endurance and mental and physical stamina,” Sanchez said. “This year, we just came up a little short, and in softball that can make all the difference in the outcome.”
Pearsall outhit the Lady Mustangs in game one but couldn’t muster any kind of offense, failing to score a run until the seventh inning.
In the final inning, the Lady Mavs made their move, scoring a run to cut it to 3-1. They had a pair of runners on base but were thrown out at home following a walk. They would have had a bases loaded situation with one of their top hitters coming to the plate.
Pearsall scored the one run on ten hits and only had a single error. Ingleside plated its three runs on eight hits and also had an error.

Game two played out similarly in the early going as Ingleside scored a run in the first but the two were then scoreless through three innings. The Lady Mustangs added three runs at the top of the fourth but Pearsall answered with a pair of runs at the bottom of the stanza to cut the lead to 4-2 going into the fifth.
Following a scoreless fifth, Ingleside broke the game open with three runs in the sixth and eight in the seventh to run away with the 15-2 decision.
Pearsall finished with seven hits while Ingleside belted out 19 in the win.
The Lady Mavs close out their season with a 14-15 mark overall and 7-5 record in District 29-4A. The team was third in the standings.

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