With few exceptions, the Waltrip Lady Rams softball team have blown through District 20-4A competition, and Monday's game against HISD foe Stephen F. Austin was no different.   Coach Darcy Ruffino's offense was in high gear in a muddy 15-0 win.  What was different this time, however, were the Waltrip players accounting for the long balls in the contest.

Sophomore second baseman Jackie Vasquez powered a triple to deep center, while junior outfielder Courtney Valka contributed a double in the Rams' four-run second inning. 

In her second year on varsity, Vasquez comes from a family of softball-playing sisters, and she says she hopes to join them when she graduates, either at Clarendon College in north Texas, where all three play now or at Northwestern Oklahoma where her older sisters Leslie and Ashley plan to play next year.  Another sister, Natalie, who plays for Clarendon, played for Waltrip last season.

Like Vasquez, Valka is also in her second year on varsity and comes from a softball family.  She and her older sister Nicole, now a sophomore at Blinn College, played for years at the local Oaks Dads Club under the watchful eye of their father Monte Valka, long-time ODC coach and board member.

  This summer, Courtney plans to forego softball to serve as a counselor at Camp Allen, a church camp in Navasota where she will work with elementary-age kids.

Sophomore Abby Schumacher pitched a no-hitter in the contest against Austin-her second of the season--while striking out seven. 

Austin pitcher B.B. Villareal, to her credit, kept the Lady Rams out of double figures in each inning, but Waltrip still collected 20 hits, including a double by Schumacher. 

The win keeps Waltrip perfect in District 20-4A with a 9-0 record.  The Lady Rams face Magnolia West in a non-district game Tuesday, April 10, at 4:30 p.m.

Subscribe to this comment's feed