Final thoughts of the night on Guyer softball
First off, congratulations to the Lady Wildcats and their coaches. Guyer advances to the area round to play Fort Worth Southwest after a hard-fought series with Azle.
Guyer actually took Game 1 despite being no-hit, got two-hit in a Game 2 loss and got three hits in its thrilling Game 3 victory.
A few things stick out to me about this team and its play in this bi-district series.
1. This team will be downright sick in a year or two. That's not to say its run this season is over, but I'll be realistic, I don't see a trip to Round Rock for this team -- yet. Now, next year and the year after will be a different story. Guyer starts five freshmen and three sophomores and has a whopping one junior and one senior on the roster! All of the Lady Wildcats' best weapons are those freshmen and sophomores. The two key hits today that won the game came from freshmen Amber Gonzales and Layne Greenlee.
What's been so impressive this weekend was the veteran attitude this team showed with plenty of adversity being shoved in its collective face. Guyer had to face a wonderful pitcher in Azle's Sarah Mendez, who gave up a whopping five hits and struck out 34 batters in the three games, but guess who won? Guyer. In Game 3 today, Azle had the most opportunities to score with three or four good chances, including twice when the Lady Hornets stranded a runner at third base.
Guyer had a leadoff single from Kylee Crosek, who was later thrown out trying to steal third and didn't get another hit until the decisive sixth inning. That's two chances and one that was made good on. As Guyer coach Keith Medford told me after the game, "We had two chances to score. One out of two ain't that bad." You can't argue with that, especially when you have Kylee Crosek on the mound, which brings me to my next point.
2. Kylee Crosek is the real deal. Don't take this wrong because I know Ryan's Brysten Luster is greatness, but I think Luster's greatness kind of takes Crosek out of the local spotlight, and with good reason -- Luster's pitched for a state championship. However, the two pitchers' numbers are nearly identical. Crosek, just a sophomore, doesn't get the big strikeout numbers but she forces the issue and get opposing players to put the ball in play where her lights out defense is in waiting. But hold up, Saturday's 2-0 win over Azle was maybe Crosek's most shiny of her shining moments this year. Crosek fanned 10 Azle batters, including sitting down the side in order in the bottom of the seventh with the game on the line.
I'll tell you what, it's hard not to enjoy watching what Crosek did today (despite the fact I had to work on a Saturday, ugh). When she walked out in the seventh inning she looked like she had already won -- a big ol' smile on her face, and it never came off, right on through the 16 pitches it took to strike out the side to end the game.
You know what else I like about Crosek? She has a swagger about her, and it's the good kind. You don't get the sense that she's cocky but she's fully confident in herself, and more importantly, in her teammates. It says a lot when a team is led on the field and in the dugout by a sophomore, and that's the case with this squad. She's always quick to pass off all the glory to her defense and the team, which can make for some boring quotes sometimes, but she's good for some gold too, like today's that ended my game story in Sunday's paper. Trust me, you'll know.
3. Guyer's defense is on a big-time roll. Sure, they had three errors in Friday's loss but what they did on Thursday and Saturday, and even last Saturday in the regular season finale against Wichita Falls Rider, more than made up for it. It all starts with Gonzales. The pint-sized freshman is fearless and lays her body on the line every game it seems like. She made a couple of plays today that were either right over second base or even to the first base side of second, including the spectacular diving catch that prevented a hit. She throws out runners at first that you think are going to be safe on a consistent basis. Next up is sophomore first baseman Lindsay Vochoska. She actually had one of the errors on Friday, but she had a fantastic game defensively on Thursday and is always making the stretch or the scoop at first when necessary. I get the feeling that the defense really plays for Crosek and doesn't want to let her down, and that's a good dynamic for a team to have.
Now, to my three stars of Game 3. Note: I'd do stars of the series, but it'd have to be way more than three, so I'm holding it to Game 3, and I'm pretty sure it'll be easy to figure out.
First star - Layne Greenlee entered Game 3 0-for-6 from the plate, basically like everyone else on her team and hit the game-winning RBI triple to right field in the top of the sixth.
Second star - Kylee Crosek. As if I haven't already said enough about the super sophomore. It's pretty self-explanatory.
Third star - Amber Gonzales. The speedy freshman (haha, no pun intended, seriously) had been dealing with a Barry Bonds-esque shift all series long. Only thing was, her shift was "closer to the plate". The outfield was literally feet away from being on the infield dirt. You were just left wondering when she was going to put one of her slap hits over their heads. In the sixth inning, she finally did and it went for an easy stand-up double. She scored on Greenlee's stand-up triple and then scored the insurance run on an error.
I'm sure there will be plenty more to come this week about the Lady Wildcats, but feel free to leave your thoughts or your stars of the game or whatever else you want to leave.