Lady Highlanders sweep Atascocita, advance

ATASCOCITA, Texas - The Woodlands Lady Highlanders overcame some incredible odds to advance to the Region II-5A softball tournament on Saturday night at Atascocita High School.

After losing Game One 9-7 on a two-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Lady Highlanders needed to win both ends of Saturday’s doubleheader on Atascocita’s home field to advance to the regional tournament.

And that’s exactly what they did.

The Lady Highlanders, who are ranked No. 2 in the state of Texas, defeated Atascocita 12-5 and 7-4 to move on to the fourth round of the playoffs and improve to 34-3 on the season.

Atascocita, which was ranked No. 4 in Texas, ended the year 31-3. Its only other loss came against District 13-5A-rival Kingwood.

In Saturday’s first game, The Woodlands showed little effects from the devastating Game One loss as it scored 12 runs in the bottom of the first inning.

Shelby Dublin had a two-run double in the frame. Amy Cimera, Brittany Mann, Sidney Salmans and Kaitlyn Stavinoha also had RBIs in a first inning that took 57 minutes to play. Atascocita also had three errors and used three pitchers in the inning.

The Lady Highlanders would not score again in the game, but the one-two pitching punch of Abby Langkamp and Caitlin Bartsch was able to hold the hard-hitting Lady Eagles at bay to send the series to a third-and-deciding game.

Atascocita scored three runs in the bottom of the third inning on a couple of Lady Highlander errors and Shelby McGlaun’s RBI single.

Miranda Grotenhuis added an RBI single in the sixth off Bartsch, who came on to pitch the final three innings.

Kaitlyn Washington also added a solo home run in the seventh, but it proved to be too little, too late for the Lady Eagles.

In the nightcap, Atascocita jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Tierrah Williams’ triple into the right field corner to score Megan Calfee, and Madison Emswiler’s infield single to plate Williams.

But The Woodlands came back with four runs in the top of the third to take control of the game. Aubrey Leach, who is batting over .600, laced a double to left field wall to score Cimera and Salmans singled to center to score Leach and knot the game at 2-2.

After Stavinoha and Dublin popped out, Kelcie Leach blasted a two-run home run to left field to give The Woodlands a 4-2 lead.

Atascocita cut the lead to 4-3 on Washington’s RBI double, but Mann scored on an error and Aubrey Leach hit a sacrifice fly to plate Cimera to up the lead to 6-3 after four.

After that, The Woodlands came up with three defensive gems – one each by left fielder Mann, third baseman Stavinoha and second baseman Salmans – to preserve the victory and keep alive the Lady Highlanders’ state title hopes.

The Woodlands, which will meet either Plano West or Plano in the first round of the regional tournament, last won the Class 5A state title in 2011, when it went 44-1.

Abby Langkamp pitched a complete game in the nightcap. She struck out eight in the game and 11 total in two games.