Colleyville Heritage rallies past Grapevine softball team

By Kevin Casas

Special to the Star-Telegram

GRAPEVINE — The Colleyville Heritage offense went dormant for four innings Friday night.

When the bats awoke in the top of the seventh, the Panthers scored five runs to rally from a two-run deficit and defeat Grapevine 11-8 at Mustang Stadium.

The win improved the Heritage softball team to 5-4 on the season but perhaps more pertinent, starts the Panthers at 2-0 in District 6-5A.

“And that’s big in this district,” coach Allison Conaway said. “This district is wide open and when you look at some of the scores, it’s going to be like this throughout the season.”

The win also puts some distance between the Panthers and rival Grapevine.

The Mustangs, who lost in a one-game playoff to Mansfield Legacy in bi-district last year, fell to 4-9 and 0-2.

After Heritage opened with two runs in the seventh to tie the score, designated hitter Shelby Bourland delivered the game-winning hit with a single to right field that scored Hailie Henson and allowed Chviona Green and Jessica Alvarango to score on a throwing error.

It was the damage that Grapevine didn’t need after starting pitcher Hannah Maxey settled in to toss four scoreless innings.

Maxey had gone six innings, giving up six runs in the first two innings and 10 hits before the Panthers got the rally they needed.

Heritage starter Rebecca Parks worked 2 1/3 innings before giving up back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the third.

Those left field shots by Brittany Perkins and Mackenzie Hill helped the Mustangs rally with an additional run to tie things up at 6-6.

Conaway went to Fallon Dean after those homers and she pitched the final 4 2/3 innings to pick up the win.

“I really wanted to change the speeds up because Rebecca wasn’t getting the calls on the corners tonight,” Conaway said. “I thought she pitched well and I thought Fallon did what we needed her to do. We just need to get better on defense.”

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