1993 SOFTBALL TEAM STATE CHAMPIONS

J. FRANK DOBIE HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL TEAM

The State Tournament

The state tournament was held at Pleasant Valley SportsPlex in Austin, Texas on May 21st & 22nd. With much anticipation in the air for the first ever UIL State Softball Tournament, there was additional excitement due to a planned Kevin Costner appearance. With a crowd of 5,000, Costner kicked off the tournament with a hitting exhibition against selected pitchers playing for the state title. Dobie’s Christa Williams was the only pitcher Costner could not hit with Rackley behind the plate during the exhibition.

The Lady Horns faced San Marcos in their first state tournament and quarter final game. With a 5-1 win against the San Marcos Rattlers, they were able to advance to the semi-finals against El Paso Bel Air. The Longhorns walked away with a 10-2 win which advanced them to the state championship against Tomball who had made their way to the finals by defeating Mount Pleasant and Waco Midway.

Championship Game

Coming into the final game of the state tournament, the Dobie Longhorns and Tomball Cougars both had strong pitching on the mound. This created a scoreless game until the 4th inning. Christina Borsche was able to move along the diamond on a couple of fielder’s choice plays. This put her into scoring position when a hit by April Cook was not cleanly fielded by Tomball’s third baseman. This allowed Borsche to score putting the Longhorns in the lead. At the time, Cook was also unknowingly playing on a broken ankle from the Bel Air game.

Although Tomball unsuccessfully scored with runners on base in the fifth, they did have the opportunity in the seventh with a single that opened up the inning. However, that lead runner was forced out on second which left a runner on first who advanced to second on a wild pitch. April Cook came through on a foul ball catch near the baseline fence giving the Lady Longhorns their second out. With the home team advantage, the Lady Longhorns were one out away in the 7th and final inning to win the state championship title. Senior catcher Robin Rackley, spotted an opportunity to end the game and called a pick-off play to second baseman Melissa Atkinson. With a strong throw down to second, the runner was too far off to go back and was forced to run to third. Atkinson quickly threw the ball to third baseman Nicole Myers who tagged the runner for the third out cinching the win for the Lady Longhorns and naming them as the first UIL Softball State Champions with a 1-0 win over Tomball.

Christa Williams, Robin Rackley, Nicole Myers, and Heather Martinez were all named to the All Tournament State Team in addition to receiving the honor of being a member of the first ever UIL State Softball Champion Team.

The team finished out the year with a 24-3 record. Christa Williams finished the entire season with an 18-2 record and allowed just 2 earned runs. She also struck out 226 batters in 131 innings.

The 1993 Dobie Girls Softball team has now been added to history books as one of the greatest softball teams in the state.