The Lady Vikings clinched at least a share of the District 12-6A championship and the district’s top seed for the playoffs Friday evening with a 5-0 win over second-place Copperas Cove. It’s Bryan’s first district championship since 2012.
After the game, the Bryan team gathered at home plate as head coach Enrique Luna presented them with a championship trophy.
“It’s been awhile since we got a district championship,” Luna said. “Our kids have worked really hard since June, and last year our year was cut short, so we felt like we didn’t get accomplished the goals we wanted to, so that’s a big step.”
Jessica Adams was dominant in the circle for the Lady Vikings (25-7, 12-0), throwing a complete game shutout. She struck out 10 and allowed just two hits, limiting Copperas Cove (10-2 in 12-6A) to just five base runners.
“I think her dropball was really looking good and her curveball,” Luna said. “She’s a senior and her sister’s behind [the plate] and they study a lot of film and they do a great job. Jacque [Adams] does such a great job calling from behind the plate, so she trusts her sister. I can’t say enough about both of them.”
At the plate, all nine Bryan starters reached base. Three of the Lady Vikings’ runs came with two outs. Luna said he discussed improving at the plate with his team this week.
“I thought our kids did a great job and had a great approach at the plate,” Luna said. “Obviously, it would’ve been nice to get a little bit more run support, but scoring five runs, there’s not many people that are going to score five runs, six runs against Jessica, so I felt like we were in good shape.”
Three fielding errors and a double to the right-center field fence allowed Bryan to push two runs across in the bottom of the first to build an early 2-0 lead.
After catcher Jacque Adams reached on an error, pinch runner Teegan Smith stole second and scored on a two-base throwing error on the throwdown as it sailed wide right of the shortstop and rolled into right field. Bryan third baseman Kylie Hernandez reached on another error and later scored from second on Kaedyn Filburn’s double.
The Lady Vikings extended their lead to 4-0 in the second inning on center fielder Alexis Rodriguez’s single up the middle.
Bryan added another run in the fourth on an RBI single to center field by Jacque Adams, which scored Rodriguez from second base.
With the district title wrapped up, the Lady Vikings begin the final week of the regular season on Tuesday in their home finale against Killeen Ellison. Bryan beat Ellison 11-2 on March 26. Luna said his team wants to finish the regular season unbeaten in district but knows next week will present its challenges with Ellison and Friday’s opponent, Harker Heights, still fighting for playoff berths.
“What we talked about is that teams right now, they’re either going to be satisfied with where they’re at right now or they’re going to keep climbing that mountain,” Luna said, “so we want to keep climbing it.”
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NOTES — Bryan’s Jessica Adams broke the school record for career doubles with her 39th off the left-field fence in the second inning.
Bryan 5, Copperas Cove 0
Copperas Cove 000 000 0 — 0 2 5
Bryan 220 100 X — 5 8 1
W — Jessica Adams. L — Brooke Schmidt... Click here to read full article
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