Orange Leader

JASPER — The West Orange-Stark Mustangs seem to have found their groove again Friday night as they hosed the Splendora Wildcats 14-2 in the Class 4A Region III bi-district round.

The Mustangs’ bats combined with some serious pitching from junior Jack Dallas revived a Mustangs team that had seen things start to unravel the last half of District 24-4A play. Dallas notched 11 strikeouts on the night along with 3-for-4 batting and three runs batted in.

KJ Miller got the Mustang bats swinging early. Miller led off with a double to deep left center field. Payton Robertson quickly brought in the first run with an RBI double past the second baseman that allowed Miller to cross the plate. Robertson was able to slip across home after a Ryan Ragsdale RBI single for an early 2-0 lead for the Mustangs after the top of the first.

The Mustangs closed out Splendora in the fifth inning after a ten run rule would end the game as the Wildcats could not get enough runs across to salvage the game.

WO-S moves on to the area round with the big win along with a ton of momentum. The opponent will either be Giddings or Houston Furr.

BRIDGE CITY 7, LIBERTY 4

LIBERTY — The Bridge City Cardinals got their playoffs off on the right track Friday night by taking down the Liberty Panthers 7-4 in Game One of their Class 4A Region III bidistrict series at Liberty High School.

Tod McDowell got the Cardinals (19-7-1) on the board in the top of the third with a RBI groundout. Tanner Doiron gave the Redbirds some insurance in the top of the fifth when he slapped a two-run single.

The Panthers (12-11), the third-place team out of District 23-4A, trimmed the margin to 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth.

Game 2 shifts back to Bridge City today at 2 p.m. and Game 3, if necessary, will follow 30 minutes after. The winner of the Bridge City series will face either Bellville or Houston Scarborough in the area round next week. Bellville hammered Houston Scarborough 24-1 Friday night.

SOFTBALL

CALDWELL 3, BRIDGE CITY 2 (8 INN.)

LIVINGSTON — The Bridge City Lady Cardinals will look to bounce back today in their best-of-three Class 4A Region III area round playoff series with the Caldwell Lady Hornets after they dropped a tough 3-2 decision in eight innings Friday at Texas Slam Academy in Livingston’s Texas Slam Academy.

Peyton Trapp had the big hit for the Lady Cardinals (29-3) as she belted a two-run home run to spark the offense. Senior Faith Kaufman was 2-for-3 and fellow senior Baili Thibodaux was 1-for-4 and Meagan Sourdellia was 1-for-4 as hits were hard to come by against Caldwell (28-6) pitching. Game Two will be today back at Livingston’s Texas Slam Academy at 2 p.m. with Game Three, if necessary, to start 30 minutes after Game Two.