Fort Worth, TX - For a program that hasn't made the postseason in over a decade, the Lady Chargers (17-12-1) looked more than comfortable under the pressure of the postseason as they swept L.D. Bell (28-10-1) taking game one in Hurst 6-1 in a nine inning thriller before closing the series out at home with a far more comfortable 5-0 victory.
Game One | Central 6 - L.D. Bell 1 | 9 Innings
Game one shaped up to be the pitching battle many expected. Senior Izzy Cornell threw 7 1/3 innings, striking out 12 Blue Raiders while allowing just four hits. After seven scoreless innings, senior
Kirsten Wilkinson reached on an error in the top of the 8th. Freshman
Megan Costa executed a sacrifice bunt to advance Wilkinson and sophomore
Marilyn Korywchak registered one of the most important hits of her season when her double to center field scored Wilkinson giving the Chargers a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the 8th, Central got into a tough spot with the game tied 1-1, the winning run on third base, and just one out. Up stepped sophomore
Addi Brown who struck out both Blue Raider batters to push the game into a ninth inning.
L.D. Bell's Angelina Aguilera remained on the mound for the Blue Raiders and was noticeably fatiguing as she walked back-to-back Lady Chagers in
Morgan Crandall and
Olivia Sullivan to start out the inning.
Jaelyn Estes laid down a bunt to load the bases and Wilkinson doubled to center field, scoring two runs and putting Central back in the lead. With runners on both second and third, Costa laid down a squeeze bunt, scoring Estes and advancing to second base on the play. Korywchak than executed a sacrifice fly to score Wilkinson while freshman
Savanah Tatum doubled, scoring Costa to give Central a 6-1 lead. In the bottom of the ninth, Brown struck out two more Blue Raiders to give Central a key road victory and a chance to close out the series at home Friday night.
Game Two | Central 5 - L.D. Bell 0
Addi Brown took the start for Central in game two and pitched six and 1/3 innings striking out 11 while scattering seven hits. The Lady Chargers jumped out to an early lead pushing across three runs in the bottom of the first. After successive walks for Wilkinson and Costa, Korywchak hit a single that was followed up by a bases clearing double from Tatum. At her second at bat, Wilkinson hit her first playoff homerun, a two run drive that brought home junior
Olivia Sullivan. Cornell came in for relief duty in the seventh inning with the Blue Raiders looking to mount a season saving rally. With one out and runners on first and second, Cornell navigated the Lady Chargers out of the inning to close out the series.
Among the several impressive individual performances from multiple Lady Chargers, perhaps the most impressive performance can be accounted for by the entire Central defense as the Lady Chargers failed to commit a single error throughout the two games. First year head coach Brittany Scarafiotti noted that when the pressure was at its greatest and "the stage was set, they never once shied away from the opportunity to make history; they were able to respond in big ways and our defense played lights out, not committing a single error in either game -- a season first!"
After the post game celebrations subsided, Scarafiotti reflected on the history the program had just made saying "we couldn't be more proud of the fight, determination, and resilience in our athletes as they entered uncharted territory heading into playoffs and facing a 1-seed district champion." Scarafiotti added that it was a "total, full team-effort, our pitching staff threw two of the best games we've seen all season, our hitters out-scored our usual average run scored, and our dugout energy was unmatched and kept us in every inning."
Area Playoff Preview
Next up for the Lady Chargers is a matchup with the Wolfforth Frenship (23-11, 8-2) Tigers. Frenship also swept their Bi-District series against El Paso Socorro as they defeated the Bulldogs 13-0 in game one and clinched the series with a much closer 6-5 victory in game two. The Tigers finished as District Champions and after suffering a heavy 21-5 defeat to Odessa Permian on March 24, Frenship has gone on a seven game winning streak including a 14-1 revenge victory over Permian. Lexi Clark leads the Tigers both on the mound and at the plate. The sophomore was most recently named Lubbock Sports Athlete of the week as she combined to register 22 strikeouts and while giving up just six hits in the final two games of the regular season. Senior and UT-Tyler commit Makayla Garcia, a 2022 First Team All-District selection also serves as a key threat at the plate for Frenship.
While this will be the first Area playoff appearance for the Lady Chargers in program history, Frenship has reached the Area round in 18 of their 19 post season appearances, and reached the Regional Quarterfinals in 2022.
The only common opponent the two programs share is fellow Keller ISD school Timber Creek. The Lady Chargers swept the Falcons winning 3-1 at Timber Creek and winning the regular season finale 5-1 at home while Frenship fell to the Falcons 9-8 in tournament play in early March.
All three games will be played on the campus of Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. Just under a two hour drive from Central, the first game will take place Friday afternoon with a 4:00PM first pitch with game two taking place at 11:00AM on Saturday. If needed, game three would take place immediately after game two with an estimated first pitch of 1:00PM.
2023 UIL Texas Softball State Championships 2023 Softball 6A Regions 1 & 3
Keller ISD Athletics offers sports programs that help develop the whole student through athletics. KISD athletics programs will provide student-athletes opportunities to experience competition, leadership roles, self-improvement, goal setting, discipline, coachability, learning from setbacks, accountability, enhance academics, developing positive character traits, and being part of a team. In partnership with families and community, the mission of Central High School is to inspire in all students the desire to learn, the courage to lead, the value of proven character, and the commitment to serve. More information about Central and its coaches, student-athletes and teams is available at
Centralchargerathletics.com
