Alpine Lady Bucks Get Ready For State Tournament
By:
Updated: May 30, 2012
ALPINE -- The last two years has not been very kind to the Lady Bucks. They were ousted both years in the regional finals.
But led by a strong senior class, this years team was not going to be denied.
"It's awesome, it hasn't really hit me yet," said catcher Mary Catherine Saenz
"It was exciting that we finally got over the hump and kind of pushed through and be able to go to state," said Head Coach Troy Canaba.
Alpine defeated Colorado City 3-0 in the regional final in a one game winner take all instead of the usual best of 3 series.
"I promised myself if I had a chance to go for one game, I would fight for one game," said Canaba.
Canaba's decision for the one game playoff was because of the previous two years. In each of those two years, his team went on to win the first game only to lose the final two and get knocked out of the playoffs.
"I'm sure people wanted the two out of three just in case something happened and we didn't play our best game that first game," he said. "But I felt comfortable with it, our team felt comfortable with it. So as long as we were ok with it, I thought it was a good decision."
The girls will now travel to Austin to take on Mineola in the State Semi-final. A team who outscored their opponent in the two game regional final, 35-1.
"We haven't heard much about them," said Pitcher Lauren Hardin. "Just that they murdered the last team that they played. We know we have to play a perfect game, we can't have errors. We have to play pretty much the best game we've played all year."
"We can't make any mistakes," said Canaba. "At this time of year the team that makes the least amount of mistakes are the ones that move on."
"We're just going to have to stay calm," said Saenz, "cause I know this is a big thing. Everyone wanted to be here so bad. As long as we stay calm, I think we'll be fine."
