Jacksonville Progress
May 06, 2008 07:57 am
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By Richard Nelson
editor@jacksonvilleprogress.com
LINDALE — Valerie Roberts had seen enough softball for the weekend when she came up to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday night.
The Bullard Lady Panther third baseman launched a walk-off two-run homer over the left field wall to clinch a 5-4 area-round victory over Sabine at Lindale High School’s Lady Eagles Field.
The Lady Panthers were supposed to play Friday night, but the game was postponed until Saturday because the early game Friday between Hallsville and Rockwall-Heath went 24 innings. Heath won the 6.5-hour marathon about 11:30, and the second game could not have started before midnight as dictated by University Interscholastic League rules.
So, Roberts didn’t want any part of a tie when she came to the plate with her team down a run.
“At first I thought I wasn’t going to get it. I was nervous,” Roberts said about her at-bat. “But, my first base coach told me to just calm down, and it just happened. I kinda knew it was gone when I hit it.”
Bullard coach Billy Holcomb admitted to a bit of nervousness, too, but also knew the Lady Panthers had it in them. It was their fourth bottom-of-the-seventh win and Roberts’ third walk-off homer.
Still, they shouldn’t have needed the heroics.
Bullard led 2-1 until the top of the seventh when Sabine took advantage of three Bullard fielding errors to take a 3-2 lead.
“I don’t know what that was,” Holcomb said, shaking his head. “We don’t make errors like that, especially all in one inning like that.”
Sabine’s Lindsey Brice walked, and Sandy James reached base on an error. Another error allowed Janel DeFreece to reach base and Brice to score the tying run. Then, with two outs, another error allowed James and DeFreece to score and gave Sabine a 4-2 lead.
Bullard pitcher Erin Kipp got out of the inning by notching her 10th strikeout, her third in the inning.
Kipp,who was 3-for-3 and reached base a fourth time by being hit by a pitch, singled in the bottom of the seventh to get things started for the Lady Panthers. With one out, Alayna Kipp (2-for-4) tripled in her older sister for the second time in the game.
“When she’s on base, she gives me a smile and that gives me the confidence to hit her in,” Alayna Kipp said about her older sister.
Roberts came up next and hit the game-winner.
The Kipps combined to give Bullard a 1-0 lead in the third inning — with the help of an Allison Burton double to the wall. Allison Burton reached base in the fifth inning by being hit by a pitch and scored on an error.
Sabine cut the lead to 2-1 in the sixth. Alex Easley singled and Cortnee Ryan returned to the game to double Easley to third. Ryan left the game in the third inning after hitting the wall attempting to field Burton’s double. Hayley Hayes then hit an RBI single.
Bullard will play Liberty-Eylau in the Region II, Class 3A regional quarterfinals this week.
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