Regional final softball: Aledo bests Burleson Centennial, Keller falls to Denton Guyer

The UIL high school softball regional finals are underway, and several teams from Dallas-Fort Worth are playing to punch their tickets to the state tournament. Here is a roundup of high profile games from the area.

Aledo takes game one from Centennial in pitchers’ duel

Burleson Centennial did not have an answer for Aledo ace Brenlee Gonzales in game one of the Class 5A region one final.

Gonzales, a Texas Tech commit, tossed a complete game shutout and tallied 11 strikeouts to lead the Bearcats to a 2-0 victory on Wednesday at Aledo High School. The Bearcats can secure a trip to the state tournament with a win in game two.

“I’m proud of them,” Aledo head coach Heather Myers said. “They’ve been competing. We’ve had these tight games the entire playoff run. They’re less jittery when it comes down to it. In tight situations, we’ve been here. It’s routine for us. We know how to compete and stay up in tight games.”

Myers credited Gonzales for her mental toughness with minimal run support. The future Red Raider was composed throughout the entirety of the game, allowing just four hits and walking zero batters.

“She is ice cold on the mound,” Myers said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had a pitcher that is so unphased by things. The drop ball was working. Her change up was working. We were able to mix it up in such a way that it kept them off balanced the most of the game.”

Gonzales fielded her position incredibly well, fielding four ground balls for outs. Myers said that has been a reoccurring theme throughout her career.

“She knows what to expect,” Myers said. “She knows that throwing the drop ball -- it’s going to get her a lot of ground balls. So, she is ready.”

On the offensive end, Aledo did just enough to take and keep a lead. In the bottom of the second inning, the Bearcats capitalized on the spark Kyleigh Pawlawk provided with a triple to the right field wall and took the lead in the bottom of the second off an error.

“She has a really good eye for the ball,” Myers said of Pawlawk. “She knows where the strike zone is and she attacks in the strike zone. It makes her a lethal hitter. She attacks early and often and I like it.”

Rylee Marx extended the lead to 2-0 by hustling out an infield RBI single. Grace Heath, a courtesy runner for Gonzales, set up Aledo’s scoring situation by tagging up from first and taking third base on a wild pitch.

“Those were balls that nobody else runs on,” Myers said. “She took two bases. We wouldn’t have scored that second run had she not done that. That was aggressive, smart running.”

Burleson Centennial pitcher Bailey Lindemuth, also a Texas Tech commit, gave up six hits and struck out seven batters in six innings. Aledo’s two runs were not credited to Lindemuth due to an error on a play that would’ve ended the inning.

Aledo’s offense has had better days, but the two runs were vital in a low scoring game. Myers credited her team for having confidence and staying composed against Lindemuth, a top talent.

“They didn’t look scared in the box,” Myers said. “We prepared all week for her. But we’ve known for awhile that this was a possibility. We face our own pitchers in practice, so we’ve seen good pitching all year.”

Another key player in Aledo’s offense was leadoff hitter Addie Perry, who tallied two hits. Myers called Perry “the catalyst to the offense.”

“When she gets a base hit, we’re usually going to be hitting behind her,” Myers said. “She starts things off for us a lot. She is vital in the leadoff position. She has been there the last two years.”

Aledo has made the tournament six times in program history with its last appearance being in the 2022 season. Burleson Centennial, on the other hand, has never made the state tournament, according to the UIL state archives.

Aledo (33-3) and Centennial (30-7) won regular season championships in District 5-5A and District 8-5A, respectively.

Game two will commence at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Burleson Centennial High School. Myers said Gonzales will be ready to go in game two, if needed.

Aledo will try to steal a game in enemy territory by continuing to “play their game.”

“Not doing anything outside the norm,” Myers said. “Not making the situation bigger than what it is. It’s a big stage but it doesn’t have to be big in our mind.”

Denton Guyer explodes early to take 1-0 series lead on Keller

Denton Guyer scored five runs in the first inning and never looked back to defeat Keller 11-1 in five innings in Game 1 of the Class 6A Region I final series at the Coppell Ninth Grade Campus.

Game 2 of the series is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, back at the Coppell Ninth Grade Campus.

Keller (28-10-2) jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Kaiya Fabela blasted a Finley Montgomery pitch deep and over the left field wall for a home run in the top of the first.

Guyer (36-3), a state finalist a year ago, scored five times in the first and twice in the third, but controversial calls in both innings helped lead to the runs.

Keller (28-10-2) was actually on the wrong end of three controversial calls, starting with the second batter in the bottom of the first. Kaylynn Jones led off with a half-swing, liner that reached the wall in left center for a double.

Lauryn Jones followed with a shot down the line past third that looked clearly foul, but was ruled fair and Kaylynn Jones scored as Lauryn Jones pulled into second with another double.

The Wildcats got five consecutive hits in the first inning off of Keller starter Sadie Beck, but a pair of Keller errors assisted in Guyer making it 4-1 before the Indians recorded an out.

The second controversial call came later in the first when Bri Williams hit a slow roller to the right side towards second baseman Lauren Kavanaugh who was bumped into by a runner advancing to second. Kavanaugh managed to field the ball, but her throw was too late to get Williams who knocked in Karen Galaviz on the play to make it 5-1 Guyer.

“At the end of the day Guyer is a number one team, but I don’t think that we did a very good job of overcoming some of those things,” said Keller coach Chad Cribbs. “We’ve overcome a lot of those type of things all year so we need to be better mentally.

“Yes, a couple of calls didn’t go our way, but you can’t do anything about that and we’ve talked about that all year. We just have to step up and be better tomorrow.”

In the bottom of the third, Jenny Robledo singled with one out for Guyer and looked to have been clearly doubled off of first base when Keller center fielder Maggie Crowe raced in to catch a pop up right behind second base.

Robledo slipped a third of the way between first and second in an attempt to get back to first, and was clearly out as Crowe’s throw was true.

Robledo was ruled safe and Jordan Osborne followed hitting the second pitch she saw over the 20 foot high wall in center field to make it 7-1 in favor of the Wildcats

The game was delayed for an hour and 27 minutes in the bottom of the fifth due to lightning in the area, but after play resumed it took Guyer two batters to end the game.

Galaviz doubled to the wall in right to lead off the fifth for the Wildcats and came home on an error on a ground ball to second to make it 8-1. That chased Beck in favor Claire Boggs who struck out her first batter, but allowed a double by Jordan Osborne and a walk to Williams to load the bases just before the delay.

After the delay, Jones walked with two out to reload the bases and Lauryn Jones followed with a lined single to right that was bobbled allowing three runs to score to end the game.

Montgomery tossed five innings of two-hit ball for Guyer allowing one earned run with three walks and four strikeouts.

“You can’t do anything about this game,” said Cribbs. “It’s not a new situation for us. If you remember we dropped Game 1 against Paschal.

“We’ve been in a bunch of must-win games and we seem to shine at that point so I expect them to come out fired up and ready to go tomorrow.”