Boyd’s Taylor Lane celebrates after hitting a home run in Game 1 of the Lady Jackets’ 7-1 bi-district series win April 25 at Castleberry High School. The Lady Jackets (27-8) claimed a 12-1 Game 2 win the following day, and will face Emory Rains in the area round this week. BRENDAN MARCHAND | WCMESSENGER
The Boyd Lady Jackets opened the 3A softball playoffs by making a statement in their first-round series last week.
Boyd (27-8) connected for five home runs and scored 19 total runs in a best-of-three bi-district series win over Palmer at Castleberry High School.
“It’s a good accomplishment being the third consecutive year we’ve captured a bi-district championship,” Boyd coach Brandon Hopkins said. “This is a good group of young ladies, and our district definitely prepared us for the playoffs with all of the tough games we played.”
The Lady Jackets also dominated on the mound behind Abby Atkinson and Mekenzie Wilson. The pitching duo racked up 23 strikeouts and four walks while allowing two runs on four hits in the series.
“Pitching was great,” Hopkins said. “They had a really hard time touching Abby, and Mekenzie threw a lot of strikes and we played good defense behind her — she pitched one of her better games of the year and took care of business.”
Boyd opened the series with a 7-1 win over the Lady Bulldogs April 25.
Leading 3-1 after five innings, the Lady Jackets put up four runs in the bottom of the sixth, sparked by a back-to-back-to-back home runs by Atkinson, Angelina Sanchez and Wilson. Taylor Lane added a solo homer in the fifth inning.
“The first game was really a tale of two halves,” Hopkins said. “We really couldn’t buy a hit until about the fifth inning. But then we hit four home runs in the last two innings, and that ended up blowing the game open.”
Atkinson recorded 18 strikeouts and three walks, and gave up one run on one hit.
In Game 2 the following day, the Lady Jackets picked up the series sweep with a 12-1 victory against Palmer.
Holding a 9-1 lead in the top of the fourth, Boyd’s Lilly Lambert cleared the bases with a three-run home run over the center field wall. She added a pair of doubles to finish 3-for-3, and led the team in RBIs in Game 2 with six.
“We were hitting really early on in the second game,” Hopkins said. “We jumped on them well after they started the same pitcher that we started to figure out late in the first game. We just hit it well, and did what we needed to do.”
Wilson gave up on run on three hits. She amassed five strikeouts and one walk.
In the second round series, the Lady Jackets will face Emory Rains at Duncanville High School.
Due to predicted inclement weather, Game 1 was moved to Wednesday.
Game 2 is slated for 7 p.m. Friday. If necessary, a tiebreaker will be played Saturday at 2 p.m.
The Lady Cats (27-5-1) went 12-0 to claim the 12-3A crown. Emory Rains earned its bi-district title by sweeping Bonham last week, 14-1 and 7-3.
“I’m expecting this is going to be a tough series,” Hopkins said. “They’re the defending regional champions, and they’ve got a lot of girls back. Rains won state titles in 2019 and 2021, and would have probably won it in 2020 if it wasn’t for COVID-19. There’s a few seniors from that were freshmen on that 2021 team, and they’re making good contributions. Their catcher is a Boston College commit, their pitcher throws really hard with good spins and their third baseman and short stop are both good players. Looking down the playoff road, we knew early on that we were going to have to play them in either the second or the third round. We’re going to have our hands full.”
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