Onward and upward!

Lockhart’s Varsity Lady Lions dominated during the first round of post-season play last week, delivering a thunderous 7-0 win over San Antonio Brackenridge. The victory marks the fifth straight shutout for the Lady Lions, as they head into the second round of playoffs this weekend.

On Friday night, after the game was delayed nearly an hour because of miscommunication among

the officials, a focused but confident Lady Lion squad made short work of their San Antonio opponents with the benefit of a sea of maroon shirts in the stands.

In the first inning, two Brackenridge errors proved to be costly and allowed the Lady Lions to take an early 1-0 lead.

Catcher Alicia Garcia was able to reach first from a throwing error by the third baseman.

The next batter, Mikaela Flores, sent a fly ball to center that was dropped, allowing Garcia to score and Flores moved to second base.

In the second inning, Giselle Maciel and Cheyenne Martin recorded back-to-back singles. Mackinzee Griebel drew a walk to load the bases with one out, and Garcia came up big with a double to right-center that cleared the bases, making the score 4-0.

Gabby Ybarra started off the third with a hard-hit single to left, and Katrina Mills quickly doubled to the left field wall to score Ybarra.

In the fourth, Griebel lined a double to left-center and was knocked in by Garcia’s single to center field.

The Lady Lions scored their last run in the top of the sixth inning.

Maciel hit her third single of the game to left field to lead off the inning. Nicole Reyes hit a ground ball to the second baseman, who tagged Maciel out on the force play, but Brackenridge forced another error with a bad throw while trying to complete a double play.

Martin re-entered the game for Reyes and scored off of Zierra Gonzales’ single to left field.

Flores, a senior, shined in the circle, striking out nine batters and allowing no hits on the night.

This weekend, the Lady Lions will take on the Marble Falls Lady Mustangs, who edged out a win in a bi-district series against Crockett last week.

The Lady Mustangs will come into the best-of-three series with a 22-11 (5-7) record. In addition to earning an Area championship, the winner of the series will go on to face either Clemens or Leander in the Regional Quarterfinals. Each of the four teams from District 27-4A remain in the playoff hunt this week, with Clemens set to face Leander, Seguin squaring off with Dripping Springs and Hays up against Cedar Park.

The Lady Lions will face the Lady Mustangs at Georgetown East View High School. From I-35, follow Highway 29 east (University Avenue), over SH130. East View High is on the right. From SH130, exit SH-29 and turn right. The first game of the series will be Thursday evening at 7 p.m., followed by a second game on Friday at 7 p.m. The third game is scheduled at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 4.