Austin Bowie completes sweep of Lady Hawks in Alice
South put up one heck of a fight, but fell short to Austin Bowie 11-2 in Game 2 of their Class 5A regional semifinal at Alice High School on Saturday. Bowie now faces San Antonio Taft in the regional finals next week.ALICE — Even though their season is officially over, the Harlingen South Lady Hawks made one heck of a run.
Meanwhile, South ended its season at 23-11 and made its deepest playoff run since 1999. Coach Debbie Esparza said she was proud of what her team accomplished this year.
"These girls grew as the season progressed and kept it together during this run," said Esparza. "They believed in their abilities and battled through this long season.
"I want to thank the seniors for being great leaders to these young girls and we are going to miss them. But we have a lot of girls returning next year and the nucleus is going to be strong."
Austin Bowie wasted no time getting the scoring parade started as left fielder Kendall Wiley nailed a two-run homer over the right-field fence. Jillian Guerrero also scored on a double by Maddie Lionberger as Bowie took a 3-0 lead after one inning.
The Lady Dawgs tacked on another run in the top of the second as Alli Akina singled to center field scoring Shay Rossow.
But Harlingen South cut the lead in half as center fielder Priscilla Loa nailed a two-run double scoring Alyssa Romero and Lilly Loucks in the bottom of the second inning.
However, Austin Bowie was able to get both runs back as Lauren Gforever scored on an RBI single by Rossow, who came across on a sacrifice by Wiley as Bowie increased its lead to 6-2 after four innings.
Akina picked up her second RBI of the afternoon as she singled to right-center and scored Gforever, giving the Lady Dawgs a 7-2 lead in the top of the sixth.
Then Wiley (3-4, 4 RBIs) belted her second home run over the left field wall giving Bowie a comanding 9-2 lead in the same inning.
Lionberger added to the lead in the sixth as she hit a two-run bomb to dead center, giving the Lady Dawgs a 11-2 lead.
"We have improved every game so far in the playoffs and we are not going to stop working," said Austin Bowie head coach Rose Ruffino. "Now we need to keep up our intensity from here on out and get ready for Taft."
