FRIDAY DIAMOND REPORT | WO, Henderson softball advance; KHS baseball loses, but learns playoff opponent; Overton romps
Even with the stormy weather around East Texas, there were some games that were able to be played Friday night.
One of the biggest: coach Ninevah Blankenship and the White Oak Ladynecks taking a 6-1 series-clinching win over Tatum in the first, or bi-district, round of the UIL Class 3A softball playoffs, punching their ticket to round two. (See more below)
Kilgore loses at Spring Hill, but playoff opponent set: Also on Friday, although we’re waiting on more details: Kilgore baseball lost at Spring Hill, 6-0, in the regular season finale. Kilgore moves into the 4A baseball postseason as the No. 3 seed in District 17-4A, and as soon as the Diamond ‘Dogs have a playoff series set, likely against Bullard, we’ll have the details here on ETBlitz.com.
SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS
Class 4A
Henderson eliminates Jacksonville: In game one of this 4A best-of-three in Rusk, Henderson’s Lady Lions got a triple, a single and 2 RBI from Jacie Booth, two doubles and 2 RBI from KK Brooks, and a double and a single from Addy Davis, and beat Jacksonville, 7-4, then they dealt Jacksonville a 3-0 loss to win the series, a great start in the postseason.
Also for Henderson (22-9) in the first game, McKenna Moon had a double and an RBI, and Jayda Brown had an RBI. Chloe Ellis had two singles and an RBI, and on the mound, got the win in a complete-game pitched, with eight strikeouts and just four walks allowed.
No details for game two except for the score, but Henderson does have a tough task in the second, or area, round of the playoffs: they’ll face Liberty, a team with a 32-2 overall record. Liberty swept Vidor in round one, beating Vidor 13-3 in game one, and 12-2 in the second game. Liberty’s only two losses of the entire season, ironically, were in the season opener to Barbers Hill, all the way back on Feb. 13, and the regular season finale on April 22.
There appears to be few details available right now for the Henderson-Liberty playoff, other than it looks to be a best-of-three series. When ETBlitz is told more, we’ll announce it, and so will you.
Class 3A
White Oak advances to area round: White Oak’s Ladynecks and Tatum had a hard battle Thursday night that ultimately went to White Oak, 1-0, in game one, and the two teams met again at Spring Hill High School in Longview for game two of the best-of-three set on Friday.
It was a little more in the Ladynecks’ favor this time, and White Oak advances to the area round, where they’ll play either Hooks or Winnsboro. That series finishes Saturday. Hooks won game one.
White Oak (27-7 overall) is gonna be a tough out: the Ladynecks have won 15 straight games. But Hooks is 24-5-1 after their game-one win over Winnsboro; the Lady Raiders are a pretty respectable 18-9-1, too.
After putting up a heck of a fight on Thursday night, Tatum just couldn’t hit White Oak superpower Larkin Daniels on the mound on Friday. The pitcher didn’t allow a hit, only allowed one walk, and had 15 strikeouts. Noa Cart dueled with Daniels twice this week and did a nice job, but took the loss in both games. She had two strikeouts in Friday’s game.
Daniels earlier this year set the school’s all-time record for strikeouts and obviously, at this point, is simply adding to it. She now has 1,086.
White Oak scored in the bottom of the first, with Addison McClanahan, a former Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Player of the Week, getting a sacrifice grounder for an RBI to bring home Jaidyn Marshall – Marshall had a single to open the White Oak at-bat (1-0 White Oak).
The Ladynecks added four runs in the bottom of the second. Kara Kennedy, Graycen Sipes, Marshall and Kylie Caraway all scored on hits by Kennedy, Sipes (a double), and Cox (a single). White Oak led 5-0.
The Lady Eagles would score in the top of the third: Alexandria Brown reached on an error, went to second on another error and stole third, then scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-1.
McClanahan scored on an RBI double by Daniels in the bottom of the fifth for the game’s final run. Andee Bridges also had a hit in the game.
BASEBALL
Overton bowls over New Summerfield: In a football score (sort of), the Overton Mustangs blasted New Summerfield, 26-0, in New Summerfield.
Jayden Edwards had two home runs, a single and finished with 6 RBI in the game, teammate Joey Zalman had a triple, a single and 4 RBI for the Mustangs, and Isiaah Hawkins had a home run and 3 RBI. When their postseason series is set – yes, we’ll have the details here on the site for all to see.
There, I said it a different way for you guys.
Also in the game for Overton, Landon Hill had a solo home run. Brody Brown had two triples and 3 RBI. Kash Holleman had a triple and an RBI. Bryce Still had three singles and 2 RBI. Rylan Holleman had a double, a single and an RBI. Mason Rowe had a double, two singles and an RBI. And Braxton Harper had an RBI.
On the mound, Caden Thornton had three strikeouts in two innings and Rowe had two strikeouts in one inning pitched.