District title now within reach for Lady Indians' softball

The Comanche softball team came into the week with two big games on the schedule on Monday and Tuesday against Kingston and Lindsay, respectively.

There is no complicated process for the Lady Indians (19-6 overall, 10-0 3A District 2) to win their district. They accomplished the first part of that Friday with a win over Kingston, leaving a showdown with Lindsay on Tuesday with huge district title implications. Win and the Comanche girls would be the district champions outright. Lose and math starts to become involved.

The Lady Indians had some hiccups defensively against Kingston that allowed the Lady Redskins to stay close in a 6-3 win, but Comanche pitcher Kamrey Rendon got some big outs and added a solo home run that broke open a 1-1 tie and started a five-run inning.

“That’s a big win, but the one tomorrow will win or lose the district,” said Aaron Minor, head coach. “I like to look at the big picture. It’s a good win, but we’ve got some stuff to clean up defensively to get ready for our regional tournament in a couple weeks, so I’m already looking down the road.”

Minor also recognized Rendon’s big contribution to the game.

“She pitched great, it should have been 6-0, but we made like three errors,” Minor said. “They got some cheap runs, but she kept it from getting worse and that home run kind of sparked everybody.”

The game was scoreless through the first three innings before Comanche drew first blood in the bottom of the fourth. Bre Gill and Gracee Miller had back-to-back doubles to lead off the inning to give the Lady Indians a 1-0 lead.

It would not last long, though, as a couple of errors in the top of the fifth allowed Kingston to tie the game.

Not to be deterred, Rendon, batting in the nine hole, helped her own cause, leading off the bottom of the fifth with a home run to left center field.

It got the top of the order going from there. With the bases loaded and two out, Josey Harris hit a hard grounder at the shortstop that took a hard bounce over the fielder’s head and rolled into the outfield that scored two more runs. Comanche then took advantage of a Kingston error by the third baseman that allowed two more runs to score and the Lady Indians to build a 6-1 lead.

A double in the top of the sixth by Kingston drove in two more runs, but it would be as close as they would get as Rendon retired the side in order in top of the seventh to get the win.

For the game, Rendon gave up just three hits and had nine strikeouts and one walk.

Gill led the offense by going 2-for-3 with a run scored. Brighton O’Connor, Miller, Harris and Rendon had one hit each.