Coupled with a Game 1 win on Friday, Saturday’s Game 2 win gave the Lady Bulldogs their first regional quarterfinal birth since 2010.
“It’s been awhile so it’s a good feeling. Obviously we’re not done, but it took that monkey off our backs,” said Lyford head coach Eloy Perez. “Now we have one more, but like I’ve been telling them ‘we take it one series at a time’ and we don’t get ahead of ourselves.
“We uncharacteristically committed four errors and I think that prolonged innings for us and we have to work on that.”
In the bottom of the fifth with runners on first and third, two outs and Lyford leading 6-4, Perez decided to bring in ace pitcher Clarissa Cavazos after opting to start the game with Rebekah Perez to give Cavazos some much needed rest.
Cavazos stepped in, closed the inning, gave up two hits and had three strikeouts on 10 attempts in the circle.
“It’s a give-and-take situation,” said Perez. “We know we have to give Clarissa some rest but you know we’re probably going to give a little bit on defense. But it worked for us so we’ll take it.”
Lyford’s CiCi Cuellar had a standout performance in Game 2. The senior had two RBIs and was a threat the entire afternoon.
“Cici led us in district in RBIs with 18,” said coach Perez. “She’s a really quite type of lady but she gets the job done on the field.”
The Lady Bulldogs got off to a good start after team leader Miranda Ramirez put Lyford up 1-0 in the first. However, Odem responded in the bottom of the inning by putting one run of its own on the board.
In the top of the third, the Lady Bulldogs’ Ramirez scored her second run of the afternoon after a sacrifice bunt from Miranda Martinez stretched the lead to 3-1.
With bases loaded in the top of the fifth, Odem’s ace pitcher Mia Auster walked in Lyford’s Bailey Scogin for the 4-1 lead.
Odem threatened to take the lead on its next at-bat after Auster ripped a shot deep into center field for an RBI that put the score at 4-3 and pulled the Lady Owls within one.
Up next for the Lady Bulldogs is state ranked Santa Gertrudis.