The Ladies are the Champs:
St. Paul claims TAPPS softball championship
by Dave Mundy
Friday, May 13, 2011
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WACO -- The ladies are the champs.
Kali Kocian lays down a bunt in the championship game photos provided by Lori Raabe
The St. Paul Lady Cardinals ran out to a 10-0 lead and, after surviving a semifinal scare Thursday, closed things out in Friday’s Class 1A/2A state softball championship game, beating Watauga Harvest Christian Academy 11-1 behind a no-hitter from Paige Werner.
The Lady Cardinals scored six times in the first inning Friday and never looked back in giving a state title to coach Kaedy Hermes’ final game at the helm. Hermes will be moving to Midland next year.
St. Paul scored two runs in the first in the championship game, then poured it on with seven more runs in the second.
Alexa Schaefer was hit by a pitch leading off, then stole second base and scored on Kali Kocian’s single. Kocian was thrown out trying to reach third base on an overthrow on the play. With two outs, Emily Wagner doubled, advanced on Bethany Pokluda’s single and scored on a safety by Lizzie Opiela.
Paige Werner pitching in the championship game
Mary Adamek was hit by a pitch to start the big second inning, then Kylie Natal worked a walk. Both runners moved up when Schaefer’s bunt was mishandled. Kocian followed with a single to make it 4-0, and Schaefer came home when Wagner’s infield grounder was muffed.
Opiela reached on an error as Kocian scored to make it 6-0, then a double by Katelynn Leist ran it to 8-0. Adadmek brought Leist home with a single to left before Watauga got out of the inning.
The Lady Cardinals added single runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Pokluda smacked a leadoff single in the fourth, moved up on a fielder’s choice by Opiela and scored on a wild pitch. Schaefer gave St. Paul its 10-run margin in the fifth when she led off with a single, moved up on Kocian’s groundout and scored on a single by Werner.
Werner, meanwhile, struck out five Watauga hitters and walked two, allowing only five baserunners.
Hannah Goble accounted for Harvest Christian’s lone run in the fourth, drawing a leadoff walk, advancing on a groundout and scooting home on a fielding error on Tanya Orreo’s grounder.
Bethany Pokluda slides in safe at home.
In Thursday’s weather-delayed semifinal, Hermes proved that just because you’re coaching at a parochial school doesn’t mean you can’t still get some of that old- time religion.
"Thank you Jesus," Hermes said after Wagner’s seventh-inning double brought home courtesy runner Christina Squyres and enabled the Lady Cardinals to pull out an 8-7 victory Thursday over Wichita Falls Notre Dame and earn a berth in the finals.
"We struggled all season long to finish games," Hermes said. "We play in a district where most of the games don’t go seven innings (because of the 10-run rule). Maybe this will be our wake-up that we have to play all seven innings."
With St. Paul leading 7-1 entering the final frame, Notre Dame scored six runs to tie the game. St. Paul pulled out the win in the bottom of the inning, however, when Werner lined a leadoff single down the line in left and Wagner boomed a double to the gap in right-center to bring Squyres home with the winning run.
For the first five innings, in fact, the Lady Cardinals almost looked like they were playing a district game. Werner retired the first 12 hitters she faced and took a no-hitter into the sixth inning.
St. Paul Lady Cardinals softball team and coaches proudly show off their
gold medals and the softball championship trophy on May 13th in Waco.
Sitting with the trophy (L-R): Paige Werner, Emily Wagner. Kneeling:, Rose Egan, Kylie Natal, Christina Squyres, Kali Kocian, Lizzy Opiela, Alexa Schaefer Standing: Head Coach Kaedy Hermes, Athletic Director Dana Beal, Asst. Coach David Leist, Mary Adamek, Katelynn Leist, Samantha Siegel, Kymberlie Malatek, Abby Hull, Bethany Pokluda, Asst. Coach David Pokluda and Asst. Coach Krystal Patek.
The Lady Cardinals, meanwhile, jumped out to a 3-0 lead thanks to a three-run home run by Wagner. Schaefer got on board with a bunt single and Kocian bounced another single up the middle before Wagner took an offering from Notre Dame pitcher Hayli Otto and deposited it in the trees beyond the left-field fence.
St. Paul plated two more runs in the fourth inning. Pokluda led off with a single to left field, and with one out Mary Adamek reached safely on an overthrow on her sacrifice bunt. Kylie Natal followed with a double down the left-field line to score both runners, but she was nailed at the plate moments later on a fielders- choice grounder by Schaefer.
A leadoff single by Rachel Parkey went for naught when Wagner, in center field, made a fine throw to nail her headed to third on what turned out to be a fielders-choice single for Joie Otto. Catherine Cozier, who had singled behind Parkey, came around to score, however, on a line single to center by Hayli Otto to make it a 5-1 game.
St. Paul extended its lead to a seemingly-commanding 7-1 in the bottom of the frame. Pokluda led off with a single to left and advanced when Katelynn Leist’s sacrifice bunt was mishandled. She scored on a wild pitch before Leist came home on a fielders choice grounder by Natal.
St. Paul’s lead vanished in the seventh, however, as three infield errors and singles by Kay Mounsey, Parkey, Joie Otto and Hayli Otto brought six runs home before Adamek snagged a popup for the second out and then fielded Jennifer Ozier’s grounder cleanly.
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