MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
RIO HONDO — The Rio Hondo Lady Bobcats rebounded from their 11-1 loss to Orange Grove in Game 1 of their best-of-three bi-district playoff series, but even a 2-0 lead midway through the game wasn’t enough to keep their season alive.
Orange Grove Lady Bulldogs catcher Bea Lara brought home shortstop McKenzie Hahn for the go-ahead run on an RBI in the top of the seventh inning to secure a 3-2 comeback win against the Lady Bobcats Friday night in Rio Hondo.
The win gave Orange Grove the 2-0 sweep and sends the Lady Cats into the offseason after back-to-back district titles.
“Our district really set this up for us. We had five losses in district, four were in extra innings and none were over two runs,” said Orange Grove head coach Rick McClain. “Four were 1-0We had no nerves because we had played games like this all year. I can’t say enough about my pitcher (Hannah Halepaska); when it gets tough, she just pitches.”
Halepaska pitched six scoreless innings, allowed five hits and struck out seven batters Friday night in the circle.
For Rio Hondo, mental hiccups by a young team and stranded runners told the story.
“I don’t want to take anything away from (Halepaska), she did a great job on the mound,” Rio Hondo head coach Brett Esparza said. “We stranded runners as well on Thursday in a terrible outing. We weren’t ourselves in that first game, so to come back tonight and play the way we did makes me proud of the kids and our program. Those are just some growing pains that our program needs to go through.
“It’s hard to remember sometimes that we’re a bunch of 15- and 16-year-old sophomores and that’s how things work.”
Friday night The Lady Cats struck first in the bottom of the third inning as Amanda Torres hit a two-RBI double to bring in Jennifer Flores and Alexa Castellano for a 2-0 lead.
However, the Lady Cats could not add to the lead and left six runners stranded throughout the night, including two in the bottom of the sixth.
Trailing 2-1 in the top of the sixth, Orange Grove’s Hahn avoided a rundown and stole home to tie the game at 2-2.
After taking the lead in the top of the seventh, Halepaska went to work striking out two batters and forcing a fly out to end the game with the tying run stranded on base.
“I expected a tough game tonight,” McClain said. “Thursday we got every lucky bounce and it shouldn’t have been that bad for them. I can’t say enough good things about (Rio Hondo); they battled and should be proud.”