By Tony Adams for Temple College
The week of March 4-10 marked the official end to basketball’s regular season, softball’s second week of North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference action, and the full-on start to baseball’s NTJCAC play.
This week is Spring Break on campus, but three of the Temple College Athletics teams will have games this week.
- On Wednesday, Temple College Softball (28-4 overall, 6-2 NTJCAC) will host Hill College (6-20 overall, 1-5 NTJCAC) to start a four-game conference series. The Lady Leopards start with a doubleheader at the Danny Scott Athletic Complex at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
- Temple College Baseball (15-8 overall, 1-3 NTJCAC) will travel to Hillsboro to start a four-game conference series at Hill College (15-6 overall, 2-0 NTJCAC). Game times in Hillsboro are slated for noon and 3 p.m.
- Temple College Women’s Basketball looks to keep its postseason aspirations alive on Wednesday, as the NTJCAC third seed takes on WJCAC second-seeded Odessa College in the quarterfinals of the Region V tournament at 5 p.m. at Weatherford College. The conference semifinals are on Friday and finals are on Saturday.
- On Saturday, TC Baseball hosts Hill to complete its four-game conference series. The doubleheader is scheduled for noon and 3 p.m. at the Danny Scott Athletic Complex.
- TC Softball completes its four-game conference series against Hill on Saturday afternoon in Hillsboro. Game times are scheduled for noon and 2 p.m.
Here is a look back on this past week’s games in Temple College Athletics:
Lady Leopards hoops fall in a pair tough road matchups
It has been a tough stretch for the Temple College Lady Leopards basketball team as the grueling second half of the season and untimely injuries have landed the team in a rough stretch.
Unfruitful trips to McKinney and Weatherford put the team in the third slot in the upcoming Region V Women’s Basketball Playoffs, as the Lady Leopard lost to No. 1 Collin County Community College (96-80) and Weatherford College (88-77).
The Lady Leopards hung tight with the Cougars in the first quarter, trailing by a point, 20-19.
CCCC outscored TC in the second quarter, 28-18, and took an 11-point lead into the halftime break.
TC was unable to make up ground and fell to the Cougars by 16 points.
Camille Pritchard and Wilashia Burleson each registered double-doubles. Pritchard scored 23 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, and Burleson pitched in 14 points and pulled down 12 boards.
Mackenzie Buss scored 31 points and Waiata Jennings added 29 points for Collin County.
The Coyotes jumped out to a six-point lead over the Leopards in the first quarter and led by eight points at halftime, 44-36.
TC shot 33% from the field and struggled from behind the three-point arc trying to catch the Coyotes, having converted 5-of-28. They trailed Weatherford at the end of the third quarter, 65-53, and were only able to make up one point of the margin by game’s end.
Burleson led the Lady Leopards with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Evelyn Lorenzo added 21 points, six assists and three steals.
The Lady Leopards concluded their regular season with a 23-6 overall record and 10-6 in NTJCAC play.
Leopards fall in two tough road tests
The Temple College Men’s Basketball program needed two wins to keep their hopes for a seed in the Region V Postseason Tournament alive.
The hopes were burst by the top two teams in the NTJCAC, as losses to Collin County College (77-69) and Weatherford College (82-76) ended their season at 5-9 in the conference and 14-15 overall.
In Weatherford on Saturday, it was a tight contest that TC trailed at halftime by three points, 40-37, and were outscored in the second half, 42-39.
Henry Sanchez-Perez scored 17 points off the bench for the Leopards. Theo Grant added 16 points.
No. 6 Temple College Softball earns four-game sweep over Ranger
The Temple College Softball team faced Ranger this past week, a week removed from a four-game split of then No. 4 Grayson.
The Lady Leopards never trailed the Rangers during the series, as they collected a four-game sweep. The scores were 8-0 (five innings), 8-0 (six innings), 17-2 (five innings), and 9-2.
The wins lifted the Leopards to a 28-4 overall mark and 6-2 in conference play.
In the two Wednesday games at the Danny Scott Athletics Complex, the Lady Leopards needed just 11 innings and a pair of walk-off hits to secure the opening two tilts.
Elise Munoz’s walk-off, game-one single in the bottom of the fifth completed a 2-for-2 game with three runs batted in, with Adelyn Becerra and Lily Garcia each adding home runs and Maveryck Lightfoot adding two hits to help Haley Crawford’s seven-hit shutout in the circle.
Crawford also struck out five in her 14th victory of the season.
In the second game, Becerra and Garcia homered again, and Lightfoot added a homer and double of her own in the three-hit performance.
Emily Delgado allowed five hits and struck out seven to collect her eighth win.
In Saturday’s opener of the twin-bill, Becerra, Lightfoot and Kendall Gross homered, and Allie Cruz doubled as the quartet combined for 14 RBI to power the Leopards.
Crawford and Hannah Calhoun combined to fire a two-hitter and struck out five, as Crawford logged her 15th win.
The TC offense steadily rocked Ranger pitching in the second game, as they scored in six of the seven innings. Delgado and Munoz each homered, as Delgado and Alyssa Budisalovich drove in three runs in the win.
Delgado pitched six innings for her ninth win of the season. She allowed two runs on sixth hits and struck out six. Audrie Sayas pitched an inning of relief as she allowed a hit and struck out one.
TC Baseball finds offense late in series against Ranger College
In the opening series of the NTJCAC season, Temple College struggled to find its offensive footing through the first two-and-a-half games.
The Leopards collected just six hits at Ellis Burks Ballpark in Ranger, as the Rangers swept the twin bill with wins by scores of 7-0 and 7-1.
Ranger kept up the pressure in the opener of the doubleheader at the Danny Scott Athletics Complex on Saturday, as they jumped out to a 13-1 lead in the top of the fourth.
The Rangers were leading 15-4 in the bottom of the fifth inning, poised to run rule the Leopards when the inning produced a momentum change.
The patient Leopards received three walks to start the inning and a grand slam homer by Trent Rucker pulled the game out of run rule territory.
Although the game ended in a 17-11 loss, the Leopards hopped on Ranger pitching in the second game of doubleheader early in the second game to set up Davis Luikart’s no-hitter for a 10-0 win in five innings.
Over the course of the first final nine innings of the series, Temple outscored the Rangers 20-4.
The Leopards trailed 14-1 when the offense began to show signs of life. Two single and a hit batter loaded the bases to set up Rucker’s bases-loaded double to pull TC back to within 10 runs.
Temple needed two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to pull the game out of the jaws of run-rule territory. Ty Pankonin was brought on by Ranger to close out the game. However, consecutive walks to Wilson Woodcox, Andrew Ermis and Brayden Simmons set up Rucker’s grand slam homer over the right field fence that re-energized the team and the TC faithful alike. The Leopards trailed 16-8.
After Ranger scored a run in the sixth, TC made another charge in the bottom of the seventh. Ty Marthiljohni’s two-run double and Jake Weaver’s single pulled the Leopards to within six with two outs. However, a line out to centerfield ended the game. But it only prolonged the momentum that TC was building.
Luikart struck out the side in the first inning, having needed 14 pitches to accomplish the task.
Weaver started TC’s first rally of the second game with a leadoff single on the first pitch in the bottom of the first. Tabor blasted a 1-0 fastball over the right field fence to put the Leopards up 2-0.
TC stranded the bases to end the first but got right back to business after getting Luikart a double play in the field in the second inning.
Cash Russell doubled to start TC’s next rally in the bottom of the second. Weaver’s single up the middle brought home Russell. After a walk to Tabor, Woodcox’s double scored Weaver and moved Tabor to third. Simmon’s sacrifice fly scored Tabor and Woodcox scored on a wild pitch to increase TC’s lead to 6-0.
The Leopards tacked on four more runs in the fourth to push the contest into run rule territory. Marthiljohni’s single scored Rucker, Russell tripled home Marthiljohni and Kolvin Davis, and Weaver singled in Russell to complete the scoring.
Luikart had two strikeouts in the fifth inning to complete the no-hitter.
In the series, Weaver had seven hits and six RBI, and Rucker added five hits, a grand slam, and four RBI.