Bell softball triumphs; Trinity baseball waits

The L.D. Bell softball team is off to the postseason with hardware in tow for the second time in the last four years. The Lady Raiders shut down Southlake Carroll 6-0 on Friday to clinch the District 7-6A champion trophy, its first since 2013.

Freshman Kallie Erwin earned the shutout victory, her 13th win of the season. The newcomer has been a major factor in helping Bell achieve the district title, the second of its team goals this season (the first was playoffs).

With returner Mackenzi Mankel still working in after ACL surgery, Erwin has been a pleasant surprise for the Lady Raiders.

“We had a freshman we heard was pretty good, but we hadn’t really seen her,” coach Thomas Shives recalled of the preseason.

Now Bell enters the playoffs, where it will meet Duncanville in bi-district, confident in a pitching situation that was the major question mark coming into the season.

“That just makes us better able to adapt to whatever,” Shives said. “If it’s one game or a series, that gives us an advantage because both of our girls are better than two pitchers from whoever we’ll play.”

It’s not lost on Bell, though, that its recent playoff success is a short list. Only once in the previous six years have the Lady Raiders advanced beyond the first round. Shives hasn’t shied away from that fact with the girls.

“There’s teams around that get to the playoffs, and that’s good, but you make your money by going deep in the playoffs,” he said. “That’s where you set your program apart from other programs.”

Trojans baseball

The Trinity baseball team has jumped totally aboard the Colleyville Heritage bandwagon. That’s because the Trojans need the Panthers to win at least one of its two scheduled games with Richland this week for Trinity to make the playoffs.

With an odd number of teams in the district, someone has to be on bye the final week of the season, and it’s Trinity. Trailing fourth-place Richland by a game in the 7-6A standings, the Trojans need Richland to lose at least one of its games with Heritage to send Trinity on to the postseason.

Some might call that backing into the playoffs, but that wouldn’t be accurate. Trinity has used its best stretch of baseball, including a surprising upset of Coppell on April 15, when the Cowboys were the undefeated No. 1 team in the country, to close its regular season and put it in position for a berth should Richland falter. Trinity swept Richland last week.

“That’s best we could do and that’s what we had to do,” Trojans coach Will Averitt said. “Now, it’s out of our hands.”

Two weeks ago it looked unlikely the Trojans would make the postseason.

“He told us, just stay together and everything will fall into place,” senior outfielder Phillip Childs said.

“I can’t even explain how I feel,” Averitt said. “Just extremely proud of them. I know they’re excited. Now it’s just sit here and wait and root for the Panthers.”

Childs said the players have plans to finish practice and go out to eat together before attending Tuesday night’s Heritage-Richland matchup — and they won’t be unbiased spectators. Should the result favor Heritage, and thus Trinity, the Trojans can start preparing for 8-6A champ Midlothian.

“We know if we get in we can do some damage,” Childs said. “We already beat the No. 1 team in the nation, so we feel pretty unstoppable right now.”

This story was originally published April 25, 2016 at 11:11 AM with the headline "Bell softball triumphs; Trinity baseball waits."