The Lady Bulldogs travelled to Dilley to start their season with a tournament. On Thursday the team faced Dilley Varsity, La Pryor, and Dilley JV in pool play. The team came up 3-0 behind the pitching of seniors Savannah Lopez and Haley Hinojosa while sophomore Johni Escamilla and freshman Alexis Saenz took care of the plate. The Lady Bulldogs rotated around some during the day as the team is preparing for their district opener on Feb. 26th when they travel to Woodsboro. Seeing play in the infield were senior Briana Ruiz and junior Haleigh Garcia while sophomores Anissa Alvarez, Trina Guzman, and Vanessa Stewart joined them. Freshmen McKenzie Ruiz and Carle Struabe put in time at short stop and second. Senior Kaitlin Roberts, junior Keely Retzloff, and freshmen Ashley Zamzow and Teresa Diaz took care of outfield duties along with B. Ruiz, Hinojosa, Stewart, and M. Ruiz. The team settled in and had a great day offensively putting up a total of 36 runs for the day. On Saturday the Lady Bulldogs met up with Pearsall at noon and came up short of runs with a 7-10 final. After starting out shaky and spotting Pearsall 7 runs in the first inning, the Ladies stepped up and the defense only gave up 3 runs in the next 6 innings while the offense came up with 7 runs.

On Tuesday, Live Oak County enjoyed a classic battle of the Nueces with both teams putting all they had on the line. As always both teams left everything on the field and represented their schools and county with pride. After both teams taking the lead and fighting off the opposition, it came down to the bottom of the 7th with the pressure coming to Three Rivers to make an offensive move. Going into thetop of the 7th inning the Lady Bulldogs were up 13-9 but gave up 4 runs to the Lady Horn lineup. With the score tied 13-13 the Lady Bulldogs lead off with a double from Garcia. With the winning run on third after a passed ball, Escamilla drew a walk to join Garcia, followed by a fly out, and Straube drawing a walk. Briana Ruiz brought in Garcia on a nice ground ball through the infield to win the game. Once again we had a classic Live Oak County match-up with the fans and players full of excitement and the county proud of their kids. Hinojosa went all 7 innings in the circle while Lopez joined Garcia with a double.

The bus then headed for Kenedy’s tournament on Thursday where they came out with a second place finish, and Haley Hinojosa as a tournament MVP. On Thursday, the Lady Bulldogs faced Stockdale, Nixon-Smiley, and Pettus bringing home a 3-0 record for the day. On the return trip Saturday the team gave up a good game to Karnes City. The Lady Badgers took an early lead and ended the game with the Lady Bulldogs battling but coming up a few runs short. Hits on the day came from McKenzie Ruiz with 2 doubles and Sara Saenz adding a double. Vanessa Stewart, Trina Guzman, Kaitlin Roberts, and Haley Hinojosa also added hits to the Lady Bulldog effort. Also working for the team on defense side of the game were Anissa Alvarez, Ashley Zamzow, Johni Escamilla and Alexis Saenz.

The Lady Bulldogs opened district play Tuesday with Woodsboro on the road. The game was locked up at 0-0 through 3 innings of play when Woodsboro made a move in the bottom of the 4th to ring up 3 runs. The Lady Bulldogs answered with 2 runs in the top of the sth with Carle Straube and Briana Ruiz reaching the plate. The defense took the field behind Haley Hinojosa with Alexis Saenz working behind the plate to hold the Lady Eagles in the bottom of the sth with defensive play coming from Haleigh Garcia, Callie Mallon, Johni Escamilla, Mckenzie Ruiz, Savannah Lopez, B. Ruiz, and Straube. A nice double by Lopez followed by Saenz found them reaching the plate moved by hits from M. Ruiz and Straube. With the Lady Bulldogs adding 2 more runs in the top of 6th to tie up the score, the Eagles added two runs to move the score to 4-6. Continuing to battle with 2 outs Lopez came up with a single to get on base. Sara Saenz stepped in on the bags for her as Alexis Saenz came to the plate. With Alexis Saenz putting the ball through the infield Sara scored with Alexis standing on 2”d. The Ladies fought to the end but when the third out was called the score was 5-6 Woodsboro. It was a good opening game against a defending play-off team. The team is ready for the rest of district play and the chance to put their names in the play-off books.