River Road softball makes regional semis for first time in seven years, looking to continue playoff push
AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - It has been seven years since the River Road Lady Cats softball team has seen the regional semifinal round. Well now, that seven year drought is over.
“Matter of a fact, this is one of the goals we made for ourselves at the beginning of the year, was to get to this point,” River Road softball head coach David Smirl said. “Now that we have gotten here, it is time to push forward and keep going.”
Making a deep run is bittersweet as this is Coach Smirl’s last season coaching high school softball. Smirl started his coaching career at Tascosa High School in 2000. After Tascosa, he went to Dumas for two season and then has been at River Road for the past six.
“Our motto is just ‘For Smirl,” River Road junior middle-infielder and pitcher Ava Sharp said. “The more we do everything for Smirl, the harder we play.”
“It was actually a hard decision to make, to say that this was the last one, but you know circumstances and my daughter is going to go to Tascosa and she is going to be playing softball over there, so it’s time to go watch and be a dad,” Coach Smirl said.
Coach Smirl is still locked in on this team.
The players are proud to be putting purple and white on the map. Round four starts on Thursday.
“It feels great,” River Road junior outfield and pitcher Carolyn Koval said. “I like making a name for River Road. I like proving it with this team. I just think that as long as we don’t think about it too much and play how we have been playing, we will be fine.”
“I think just if we relax and play how we know how to play,” Sharp said. “How we’ve been playing with our sticks, our defense backing up our pitcher, we will be just fine.”
River Road’s regional semifinal round starts on Thursday in a best-of-three series against Iowa Park.
Game one will be Thursday at 5 p.m. at Sandie Field at John Stiff Memorial Park.
Game two will be Saturday at 12 p.m. at Iowa Park.
If needed, game three will be played 30 minutes after game two.
Copyright 2024 KFDA. All rights reserved.
