Alexander is heading to the postseason after outlasting northside rival United 19-17 in the District 30-6A season finale at the Student Activity Complex. For the third consecutive year, Alexander is in the playoffs under head coach Alex Colin.
"This is the third year in a row to be heading to the playoffs, and we have been there seven or eight times at Alexander since I have been there,” Colin said. “We are due to break through. This district is the toughest in the region. You have South, LBJ, Medina Valley, and they do not do us any favors by sending us to San Antonio. Our girls play travel ball all year long and they see that type of pitching. We have to play error-free to beat a San Antonio team, and I feel we really can do it.”
The Lady Bulldogs' chances of earning a postseason berth looked grim at the start of the district season. In the opening round, Alexander went 2-4 and the Blue & Gold were counted out of any postseason talk.
“We were counted out,” Colin said. “I know when some of those teams ahead of us started losing, we kept with it and caught some breaks. We were able to win the right games. We won Laredo. We beat (United) South, LBJ and United, and that was our goal: to win Laredo, and that might get us in, and it did.”
Alexander put together one of its best offensive outbursts to open the game and finished with 16 hits. The Lady Bulldogs used a combination of offense and United errors to jump out to a 10-0 lead in their first at-bat.
“Offensively, we have picked up the pace in the second round,” Colin said. “We are hitting the ball well, but defensively, we have a lot of work to do. We will get back to work on getting the kinks out of that defense.”
United battled back over the next three innings after settling down and came within one run of tying the game in the third inning. The Lady Longhorns were down 10-4 but scored five runs in the bottom of the third.
Alexander responded and built a 19-9 lead as United headed into its final at-bat. United scored eight runs, but the rally fell short as the Lady Bulldogs recorded three outs to secure their postseason berth.
Additional settings for Safari Browser.
