Shortstop Sara Corcoran comes to the plate with one of Boerne’s 15 runs against Memorial as first baseman Shelbey Veselka (13) gets ready to hit. Photo by Mike Reeder

The Lady Greyhounds ran their district softball record to 3-0 with wins over Fredericksburg and Memorial and were looking to stay undefeated when they hosted Alamo Heights Tuesday night as the View was going to press.

The fast start had Boerne sitting alone atop the district standings. Alamo Heights and Kerrville Tivy, both 2-1, were tied for second place.  Fredericksburg and San Antonio Kennedy were tied for third at 1-2, and Memorial was in last place at 0-3.

Boerne 7, Fredericksburg 1

The Lady Hounds won their district home opener March 20 over Fredericksburg after falling behind 1-0 in the top of the third inning.  Fredericksburg’s Ashley Rusche reached base on a single and Amy West brought her home with a double. They turned out to be the only hits Boerne pitcher Victoria Beltran allowed all night. 

Boerne tied the score in the bottom of the frame and blew the game open with a five-run fourth fueled by timely hits, good base-running and sloppy defense by the Billies.

Fredericksburg had threatened to score again in the top of the inning after Beltran walked a batter with one out and another reached base on a dropped fielder’s choice. The threat ended when catcher Kaitlin Southerland started a double play with a throw to first off a swinging bunt and first baseman Shelbey Veselka threw back to Southerland for a tag-out of the runner heading home from third.

Beltran and Ryanne Chapman led off the bottom of the frame with singles.  Veselka appeared to ground out, but the Billies’ shortstop dropped the ball and the bases were loaded. Outfielder Kim LeComte promptly swatted a base hit up the middle that brought two runs home. Second baseman Chelsea Muskopf followed with another single that scored two more runs but appeared to be thrown out when she tried to take second. Instead, the Billies’ second baseman failed to get the tag down and Muskopf was safe.  A few seconds later Muskopf looked to be out again when she tried to steal third, but once more a Billies’ infielder dropped the throw. Madeline Hurdt struck out, but Southerland ripped a single over third that brought Muskopf home with the fifth and final run of the inning.

“We took advantage of some of their errors,” Boerne Coach Jennifer Fox said. “Whenever you’ve got speed up and down your lineup that’s what you do.  Especially on a night when the ground is wet and the ball gets wet we’re going to take advantage of that.”

LeComte finished off the scoring in the sixth with a solo home run to dead center.  It was the seventh time LeComte has gone long this season. 

Beltran struck out six and allowed only the two first-inning hits in picking her 20th win of the season. 

Boerne 15, Memorial 0

The Lady Hounds scored in every inning of Friday night’s game against the visiting Lady Minutemen in a game that was called after four innings when Boerne went ahead by 15 runs on 11 hits. Meanwhile, Beltran was striking out eight and spinning a no-hitter that was just a walk and an error short of a perfect game.

Beltran’s two-run homer helped stake Boerne to a 3-0 lead in the first. The Lady Hounds scored seven more in the second off three hit batters, three walks, a pair of misplays in the infield and singles by Chapman and Veselka.  Chapman slammed a two-run homer in the third and Ashton Bohnert and Beltran sandwiched doubles around walks in the fourth that scored three more runs before the game was called by mutual agreement with one out in the inning.

In three district games Memorial has been outscored 51-1.

“We’re not here to embarrass anybody, but at the same time we can’t stop our kids from playing,” Fox said.  “I thought Memorial actually made some great plays in the field, but I also felt we showed some sportsmanship tonight.” 

The game might have been even more quickly decided if Boerne batters had been able to adjust sooner and stay back on the slow pitches being lobbed to the plate by Memorial starter Joslyn Alziar.

“That’s just a matter of not being disciplined, and that’s going to happen against somebody who doesn’t throw as hard as other pitchers we see,” Fox said.

Southerland, who was hit twice by pitches, had her own approach.

“I just pretended it was soft-toss,” she said.