The playoffs are a time of celebration.
Your season continues past the regular season as you try to make it as deep as possible. It also allows for road trips, hotel stays and team bonding. Keller got to have that this past weekend with a trip to Midland for the area round, but its experience took an unexpected bump.
The Indians, winners from District 4-6A, reached the 6A Region 1 final last season – falling one game short of a state tournament berth against Denton Guyer. But they returned this spring and have been one of the top teams in DFW once again.
The team beat El Paso Eastwood 1-0 in the opening game of their series on Thursday. They returned to their hotel in their charter bus and overnight, the bus was broken into and all their bags and equipment were stolen. Heartbreaking news when they woke up as Game 2 was set for that day at 6 pm from Midland Legacy HS.
Coaches and parents soon started to work with the local police to try and retrieve the stolen items, which included bats and gloves – some of which were personalized with the players’ names.
Around mid day, the team found their bags about 30 minutes away by a couple of dumpsters, but bats and gloves were still yet to be found. When the team found out what had happened a post was made on Facebook by Mikayla McClasky, the younger sister of assistant coach Jessica Pauls. The post quickly went viral and was shared more than 200 times.
Game 2 was pushed back two hours with an 8 pm start, but the team had to use different equipment. Parents went to a local Dick’s Sporting Goods store to buy items. The store was kind enough to offer a 25% discount. Then schools in the Midland area began to help – friends, family and teams from DFW began to help.
Among the items stolen was a face mask for senior pitcher Sadie Beck.
Fortunately it was found prior to Game 2 and a family friend brought an alternate glove from DFW to Midland – a drive more than four hours. Beck went out Friday night and tossed a 4-2 win to complete the sweep over Eastwood and clinch a spot in the regional quarterfinals.
Beck allowed two unearned runs on three hits and struck out eight in seven innings. She started the game with three straight strikeouts and retired the first seven batters. Following back-to-back singles in the third by Cambree Cribbs and Annsley Groce, Mackenna Jackson hit a hard grounder to short and an errant throw to first base resulted in a two-base error and run scored. Beck drove in Groce with an RBI grounder to give Keller a 2-0 lead. Kaiya Fabela followed with an RBI double to deep center to score Jackson.
Beck followed with three straight outs and back-to-back strikeouts in the fourth.
She retired nine in a row before Eastwood scored in the top of the sixth inning. Eastwood got a one-out single and scored on an error in the outfield. Eastwood cut the deficit to 3-2 on an RBI triple. With the tying run 60 feet away, Beck got a fly out to right fielder Addi Clark to get out of the frame.
Keller upped the lead to 4-2 when Carley Genzer hit a lead off single and scored two batters later on a grounder to first base from Lauren Kavanaugh. After an out in the seventh, Eastwood reached on an error and put the game-tying run to the plate. But Beck got her eighth strikeout and a fly out to Cribbs in left to finish off the game and earn the area round championship.
“No matter the equipment, we’re going to win the game,” Pauls said in an interview with CBS 11. “We got a bunch of gloves, bats and helmets that didn’t belong to any of us and we went out and won a playoff game, and it was incredible. It was amazing.
“That just shows the heart and soul of this team. No matter what happens or what this group faces, they can conquer it all together.”
The Indians (25-8-2) will face 4-6A mate Haslet Eaton in the regional quarterfinals this week. The Indians swept the season series 2-0. Eaton, fourth from district, beat Midland in three to advance.
Beck hurled a two-hit shutout and struck out seven in the Game 1 win. She also drove in the only run of the game during the top of the fourth inning.
The team continued to work with local police and received good news Saturday morning when their gloves and bats were found in a box on the side of the road a half hour away. Close to all the items were found. They were able to locate a lot of the stolen items with an Apple AirTag.
