Youth softball: Texas East wastes no time routing Arkansas

The start of the game was delayed because the home-plate umpire had a nosebleed.

The Texas East champion, from Seguin Little League, quickly put the game back on track.

Texas East scored six runs in the second inning and seven runs in the third to beat Arkansas 14-1 in five innings Friday afternoon in a first-round game of the Southwest Region Junior League Softball Tournament at Odessa College's Wranglers Field.

"Getting the first win in this kind of tournament is always nice," Texas East coach Jodie Bateman said. "In our district tournament, we lost the first game and had to come all the way back through the loser's bracket and win twice in the championship. We lost one game in the regional tournament, and then in the state tournament, we went undefeated. But you can't think about that, because we could see that team (Arkansas) again, and they could step up and beat us. We have to be ready."

New Mexico defeated Colorado 5-4 in the other game Friday.

The victory moves Texas East into the second round at noon today against Louisiana. The champion of the tournament earns a berth in the Junior League Softball World Series from Aug. 7-12 in Kirkland, Wash.

"I thought we hit the ball real well," Jodie Bateman said. "We started a little slow but picked it up in the second and third innings and were able to take advantage of some mistakes. This is the farthest that any team from Seguin has ever gone, so we're excited to be here. We'll have another tough game against Louisiana."

Arkansas' Shelby Hinston led off the game with a single, stole second and scored on an error on a ground ball by Kayla Kemp. After Kemp stole second, Alanna Rainey singled to put runners on first and third with no outs.

Rainey was called out for leaving a base early on a pitch by Seguin's Kate Bateman, and Bateman struck out Shelby McWhorter and Sade Jenkins to end the inning.

Texas East tied the score in the bottom of the first when Vanessa Lerma reached on an error and moved to second when Skylar Sullivan struck out but reached first safely on a wild pitch on the third strike.

Bateman then laid down a sacrifice bunt to the pitcher, who tried unsuccessfully to force Lerma at third. Lerma scored on a fielder's choice by Madison Monaco, and Monaco reached safely when the throw to the plate trying to force Lerma was wide.

Sullivan was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a wild pitch for the first out, and Rainey struck out Sara Hancock and got Gabby Riojas to ground out to end the inning with the team's tied.

"We had a chance to break the game open in the first inning," Jodie Bateman said. "We just got a little unlucky at the plate."
Texas East's luck changed in the second after Bateman struck out the side in the top half off the inning.

Texas East scored six runs with two outs in the second to build a 7-1 lead and seven runs with no outs in the third to make it 14-1.