GRAHAM — Junior ace Avie Faries continued her postseason brilliance Saturday, pitching Wylie to a 2-1 win over Joshua to complete a sweep of a Region I-5A Division II semifinals series and lead the Lady Bulldogs to their first regional finals appearance since 2006.
Faries, who pitched a two-hit shutout in Friday’s 4-0 win over the Lady Owls, allowed just one run on five hits and a walk in Game 2, striking out 10 to improve to 6-0 in the playoffs.
The standout right-hander saw her postseason ERA “rise” to 0.85 while keeping her WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) steady at 0.829 and improving her strikeout-to-walk ratio to an eye-popping 44-to-5.
And though she spent an inning trailing 1-0 as a result of a third-inning solo home run by Landrie Durham, her teammates made a winner out of her with a two-run fourth inning that would ultimately clinch a trip to the Region I-5A DII championship round to face off with Fort Worth Brewer, which swept El Paso Parkland in the other semifinal series.