The Waltrip Lady Rams capped a perfect district run with a perfect game, shutting out the Sharpstown Apollos, 19-0, to finish undefeated in District 20-4A.

Alison Heidbreder, pitching the final home game of her Waltrip career, retired all nine Apollo hitters she faced. “It felt pretty good,” said the Waltrip senior. The win was her fourth no-hitter of the season and the team’s eighth. Sophomore pitchers Abby Schumacher and Anne Marie Taylor have added four more of their own.

Schumacher, senior Aubrey Thompson and senior Valerie Garcia provided plenty of fire power in Waltrip’s twelfth district win of the year. All blasted triples in the team’s 11-run first inning in which both Schumacher and Thompson combined for six RBIs. Senior Laura Sotiropoulos drove in another three runs in the inning with two singles.

In the second inning, Courtney Valka drove in two with a single to right to get the scoring started, while Schumacher hit in two more with a single of her own. Jackie Valdez singled to add yet another score as the Lady Rams tallied eight in the second.

Marmion Dumbrino, HISD manager of athletics, was on hand after the game to award Coach Darcy Ruffino and her team the district trophy—Waltrip’s 10^th varsity title in the 14 years softball has been played in HISD, according to the coach.

“We’re getting better and better every year,” Ruffino said. “More talent comes out for the team. More kids are looking to go to college (and play ball).”

“Every time I’ve had a player want to play college ball, they have,” she added. Both Heidbreder and Sotiropoulous plan to take their game to the next level. Heidbreder has signed with Lamar State College-Port Arthur, while Sotiropoulous is still mulling offers from Texas Lutheran, Hill College and Lamar State.

Waltrip now turns its sights to playoffs—an arena that has proven a source of disappointment for the team. Ruffino, who is in her 10^th year at Waltrip—eight as varsity head coach, two as JV coach—has never lost a district contest during her tenure. Conversely, Waltrip is also still searching for its first playoff victory.

Players like Heidbreder hope things change this postseason as Waltrip takes on the winner of the Elgin-Montgomery match up in the area round of the playoffs in less than two weeks. “We need to put our hearts into it,” Heidbreder said.

At one point in the season after suffering a hard nondistrict defeat, the team had a long talk about its goals, she said. “If we stick to those goals, we should be fine. We can stay on the field with anybody.”

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