Texan softball gets new season started

Coming off a Bi-District playoff win, the Wimberley Texans softball team entered the 2020 season anew.

With a young group of softball players, the Wimberley softball tournament was very much a learning experience for all the players especially in a tough tournament with all teams coming off playoff berths. That includes two teams that battled for the 3A State Title last year in Emory Rains and Halletsville.

“Our team competed for the most part,” Head Softball Coach Robert Klick said after the Texans’ final game on Saturday. “That was our main focus for this tournament because there was some pretty tough competition and we are young.”

“We have people in new positions,” Klick continued to say. “We are in the learning positions right now so I was pleased with the girls overall. They continued to fight, they compete and that’s the number one thing right now is to compete.”

The Texans started off the Wimberley Tournament with the Blanco Panthers. Both pitching staffs held down the other’s offense for the majority of the game. It wouldn’t be till the fourth inning when Wimberley took the first lead of the game as Avery Blanch hit a triple to score both Cypress Daniel and Addison Kirbo to take a 2-o lead.

But the Panthers rebounded in both the 4th and 5th innings to score a combined 16 runs en route to a 16-2 win.

On Friday, the Texans battled the Yoakum Bulldogs in the 1st game of the day. Both the Bulldogs and the Texans fought hard till the end but it was Wimberley who came out on top with a 8-6 win for their first victory of the season.

On their second game of the day, Wimberley battled the defending 3A state champion Emory Rains. The Wildcats proved why they were the state champions from last year and runruled the Texans in a 16-1 defeat for Wimberley. The lone score came from Addison Kirbo who knocked in Ashlyn Castro on an RBI single.

Finishing up the tournament on Saturday, the Texans took on the La Verina Bears in the first game of the weekend. The Texans battled the La Vernia tough but the Bears offense was too much as Wimberley fell 9-0.

In the last game of the weekend, Wimberley played Hallettsville. Though the Texans found themselves in an early 10-0 hole, Wimberley fought back to cut the lead down to 10-4 in the bottom of the second inning. A double play by Marika Spector helped the Texans out of a bases-loaded situation in the third inning but Wimberley fell to the Brahmas 13-4.

With a full set of games behind them, Wimberley now looks to build off of last week’s tournament.

“Really it’s not making the mental mistakes,” Klick said. “Continuing to make the plays that we are supposed to make. We don’t have to do anything fancy and make teams work to get us out.”

“We’ve been struggling with strikeouts,” Klick continued to say. “And putting the ball in play... it’s a work in progress right now so hopefully, the girls have the right mindset and come to work every game.”

Wimberley travels to Smithville on Tuesday before traveling to Burnet to compete at the Burnet tournament over the weekend.