FLASH STAFF REPORT
TheFlashToday.com
STEPHENVILLE (February 20, 2017) — Stephenville captured the bronze bracket championship in tournament play in Brock to begin its 2017 softball season.
After winning their first district championship and advancing past the area round of the playoffs to the regional quarterfinals for the first time in school history last season, the Honeybees opened with a 2-1 pool loss to Paradise, bounced back with a 6-0 pool-crossover shutout of Boyd, were grounded again, 4-0, in a pool loss to 5A state-ranked Canyon Randall, then beat Midland Christian, 20-3, and Fort Worth Country Day, 11-6, in bronze bracket action.
it’s a 3-2 start for Stephenville, which hosts its annual Honeybee Softball Classic this Thursday through Saturday at Stephenville City Park.
Junior Julia Flores and sophomore Jessica Howell each hit home runs in the bronze championship victory over Country Day. Flores drove in four runs and Howell two while each had two base hits. Blanka Combs had an RBI triple while Sami Shaffer and Morgan DiCiccio each had doubles. DiCiccio, Madison Gilder, Flores and Howell each scored two runs.
Gilder enjoyed a four-hit performance in the bronze semifinal rout of Midland Christian, going 4-for-4 with three runs driven in and four more scored. Gilder, Flores and Samantha Luna each had two doubles and DiCiccio added a seventh, while Shaffer had a triple and Howell a home run. Howell finished with 5 RBI, while Flores was 3-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored. The Bees led 3-1 before a 15-run top of the fourth, and amassed 19 total hits.
Through the five games, Flores is hitting .615 with six RBI while also pitching 26.1 innings with 37 strikeouts to just two walks. She surrendered just four earned runs out of 13 total, giving the junior an ERA of 1.06.
Howell has two early home runs and seven total RBI. Six players – Gilder, DiCiccio, Howell, Shaffer, Flores and Blanka Combs scored at least four runs each in the tournament.
“It was a good starting point, there were things we did well and things we need to work on, just like any team this early in the season,” said Stephenville head coach Rus Mayes. “We’ve had to move some people to different spots this year, so we’re working on our chemistry and that’s a process. The only thing you can do is keep working, keep playing and get better every time we take the field.”
Mayes enjoyed the power display his lineup put on in spots over the weekend.
“We do have some girls that can go deep on you in the middle of the lineup, and we have some real good speed at the top of the lineup. That’s a good combination,” he said. “We allowed a few unearned runs, so we’ll work on that, but I felt like Julia threw it pretty well for the most part in the circle.”
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