The Sealy Lady Tigers secured a 24-2 win in the bi-district round of the playoffs over Houston Wheatley through the rain last Thursday at home. Sealy will head to Montgomery High School this Friday, May 7, to face Splendora in the area round.

It’s the first bi-district championship for the Lady Tigers since the 2018 squad went three rounds deep after wins over Brazosport (two games to one) and Canyon Lake (two games to none). Sealy ultimately fell to Bay City in two games that year.

Last Thursday, precipitation preceded the first pitch then returned before the top of the first inning could even finish which forced a rain delay. Before the delay, Lady Tiger starting pitcher Kayla Camacho walked four batters and hit two more due to a lack of grip on the ball. After the delay, she returned to collect her second and third strikeouts of the inning to end the threat.

“The ball was super slick then my hand was sweaty and wet and the inside of my glove was drenched,” Camacho said. “Even my towel, I tried to wipe my hands but it was so wet. … I think (the delay) did (help) because it settled my nerves a lot and also when I went back out there I knew what I needed to do.”

Camacho led off the bottom half of the inning with a triple and started the hit parade that produced 20 hits (including one triple and five doubles) in four innings. Head coach Brittney Whitehead said Camacho’s leadoff hit set the tone for the game.

“Kayla starting off with a hit I think gave us confidence that we could hit off this slow pitching because we had really struggled with that this year,” Whitehead said. “When we played Royal, it’s pretty much been their errors then us running the bases, but I think that we put the ball in play and we made some good hits to the gaps and actually earned our runs.”

Camacho, Colette Kelley and Bailey Koy all produced four-hit games, Antreece Coleman and Melanie Nieto both collected three hits and Avery Oliver and Justice Jett each recorded one hit. Kelley led the way with five RBIs, Camacho and Koy both drove in four, Oliver and Nieto both registered two RBIs and Blair Kram, Callie Cooper and Jett all supplied one RBI. Koy and Nieto both scored four runs, Brooke Kram, Coleman and Camacho registered three runs each, Blair Kram, Oliver and Jett each scored two runs and Kelley added one run scored.

In the pitcher’s circle, Camacho finished with 14 strikeouts in five innings of work on her home field one last time.

“I’ve never played a playoff game on my home field,” Camacho said. “I was extremely nervous, bubbly in my stomach like I’m about to throw up nervous. I’m normally like that before almost every game I just don’t show it but every game I gotta give 110%.” Whitehead said the

Whitehead said the home playoff game is rare and she hoped her squad relished the opportunity. “I hope that the

“I hope that the girls were excited they got to play one more time here because we did win our last time here against Navasota – it was a much better game and a much more exciting game – but to get to play here one more time, and in the playoffs, especially because for some of them it was their first time to ever play in the playoffs, so for the first game ever in your playoff career and you win, and you’re at home, that’s pretty cool,” Whitehead said.

The next round’s game will be played at Montgomery High School against a fourth-seeded Splendora team that took down district-champion Orangefield two games to none. As the team moves further into the postseason, however, there is little playoff experience on the roster, especially since the 2020 postseason was not played.

“On this team, I think four of the girls have been to the playoffs and that would be four of the seniors in their sophomore year and they weren’t even really starters at that point. So, they have been to the playoffs before but they hadn’t taken on the pressure and the nervousness of the playoffs so I’m glad that their first game was a huge win,” Whitehead said. “But I told them the next round and anything following isn’t going to be like that. It’s going to be intense games like when we’re playing El Campo or Bellville or one of the teams we played in the tournament in the past. Really the key to our success is going to be getting hits.”

Similar to how Whitehead and Sealy flipped the page after a lopsided win over Royal to face Bellville in the regular-season finale, the Lady Tigers will have to do the same going from Wheatley to Splendora.

“I told them that we have to have a very tough week of practice this week, because coming from this, it wasn’t exactly the warmup that we needed,” Whitehead said last Thursday. “I gave them tomorrow off, they got the weekend off, then come Monday we’re going to bust it every day until we figure out when we’re playing.”