The Year in Review: Sports – Part One
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
EAST TEXAS – Wow! Talk about a year to remember! In the East Texas world of sports, 2016 was certainly one for the books.
Starting with basketball, the Grapeland Sandies, the Crockett Lady Bulldogs and the Slocum Lady Mustangs led the way as the Sandies and the Lady Bulldogs reached the Regional Semifinals while the Lady Mustangs reached the 
Regional Quarterfinals.
The Sandies opened the postseason with a 77-43 win over Cayuga, followed that with a 74-44 victory over Riesel and a 60-43 win over La Poyner before falling to Dallardsville Big Sandy 73-41.
The Lady Bulldogs defeated Woodville in the Bi-District round by a score of 40-32. They followed that up with a thrilling 71-69 win over Hitchcock in Area and won by 10 over Woden in the Regional Quarters. The Lady Dawgs fell to Little River Academy in the Regional Semifinals by a final of 55-46.
The Slocum Lady Mustangs opened their postseason run with a 74-59 win over Kerens followed by a 62-26 demolition of Riesel. Unfortunately, in regional round, the Lady Mustangs ran into a red hot La Poyner Lady Flyers team and lost a heartbreaker in Palestine by a final score of 50-44.
As basketball season was winding down, soccer was beginning to heat up. In perhaps the biggest area sports story of the year, the Palestine Wildcats laid claim to the Class 4A State Championship.
Afte
r winning the State Semifinals over the Kilgore Bulldogs by a score of 1-0 in a 3-2 shootout, two days later, they took on the Progreso Red Ants in the State Finals. Once again, the game went into a shootout after the end of regulation with the score tied 0-0. This time, it took a few more rounds by the Wildcats managed to get the job done by a score of 4-3 in the shootout to officially win by a score of 1-0 and lay claim to the school’s first State Championship in soccer.
Palestine Goalkeeper Bennett Gierkey was selected as the Championship Game MVP. He was joined on the State All-Tournament team by midfielders Chris Giron, Riley Harper and Luis Zavala.
While soccer is just now catching on in the East Texas, baseball and softball are staples of the East Texas springtime. In one of the better stories of the 2016 softball season, the Latexo Lady Tigers went down to the last day of district competition before falling to the Slocum Lady Mustangs in the District 21-2A championship game. Their second place finish, however, qualified them for the postseason for the first time in school history.
In the Bi-District round of the playoffs, they took on a perennial power in the Alto Lady Yellow Jackets and w
on a single game playoff by a score of 6-3. In the area round, they faced a tough Groveton Lady Indians squad and had a chance to force a third and deciding game. The Lady Tigers led late in the game before the Lady Indians won in their final at-bat to win the series 2-0.
The Grapeland Sandiettes had a down year by their own lofty standards but still qualified for the playoffs. In the Bi-District round they faced the Joaquin lady Rams and fell by a series score of 2-1. After losing the first game 6-2, games two and three were scheduled to be played in Rusk. However, heavy rains the night before forced the game to be moved to Madisonville. Grapeland won the first game by a score of 2-0 but ran out of gas in game three and lost by a score of 12-2.
The Slocum Lady Mustangs who won District 21-2A made it to the Regional Quarterfinals where they ran into the Lady Rams. After breezing through the first two rounds of the postseason, the Lady Mustangs made uncharacteristic mistakes against Joaquin and lost the series, 2-0.
The Elkhart Lady Elks breezed through District 21-3A on their way to the postseason and were expected to go deep into the playoffs, but a perfect storm of errors and a lack of hitting lead to a second round loss.
On the boys’ side of the field, baseball was headlined by the Lovelady Lions. The Lions battled their way to the Regional Semifinals before they fell to the Maud Cardinals in a 2-1 series. The Lions waltzed into the Regional Quarterfinals against the Joaquin Rams and lost the first game of a three game series by a score of 4-3. The Lions, howe
ver, came back to win games two and three by identical 9-2 scores.
In the next round, the Lions took on the Maud Cardinals. After losing game one by a score of 4-0, the Lions bounced back to win game two by a score of 5-2. Game three, unfortunately saw the Lions season come to an end as they lost the game by a score of 5-0 and the series by a score of 2-1.
While the action on the diamond was outstanding, the action on the links was even better as the golfers of Houston County gave quite a performance. The Grapeland Sandiettes and Latexo Lady Tigers both qualified for the state tournament and Grapeland wound up finishing ninth while the Latexo Lady Tigers finished 11th.
Individually, Emily Walker made a move up the leader board on Day Two. She cut 13 shots from her opening round 93 and walked off the 18th green with a score of 80. Her second day total was the third best round of the day and moved her from 20th up to ninth place individually.
Latexo’s Jenna Lawrence shot a 93 on Day Two and combined with her first round of 84, she e
nded the tournament in 12th place, with a score of 177.
On the boys’ side of the course, Crockett’s Will Holcomb brought home a gold medal as the best golfer in Class 3A while the Bulldogs’ team finished in fourth place.
The Grapeland Sandies finished the golf tournament as the state runners-up with a final round of 319 and a combined score of 631.
Rick Frauenberger finished in sixth place with a two day total of 153, after rounds of 76 and 77. Brayden Cheatham was seventh after shooting a 77 and 78 for a two day total of 155. Case Boyd finished in 12th place with a total score of 157 (76-81). Riley Chipman finished tied for 24th after he shot back to back rounds of 83 for a total of 166.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
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