Bowie’s slugger is leading the charge at the plate for red-hot Bowie
By Michael Adams
madams@onthesidelinessports.com
Bowie catcher Anya German trotted down the third baseline into a sea of black and red after the senior belted a home run over the left field fence at Cavalier Field on Monday.
It was her second home run in four days at Lake Travis’ home field, but just her sixth on the season.
If you thought the number six in the home run column seemed a little low for the Creighton-bound slugger, you wouldn’t be alone. After all, German leads a Bowie team that’s scored 270 runs with a .784 slugging percentage.
“Anya has kind of re-focused her hitting,” said Bowie head coach Liz Wissel. “She’s not so much focused on jacking it out of the park at every at bat, but instead she’s hit more doubles this season and has been very consistent with that line drive up the middle.”
German’s two-run homer helped Bowie (23-8) defeat Lake Travis 7-6 on Monday and secure the No. 2 seed from District 26-6A in the postseason. It also started a scoring barrage that included a grand slam by sophomore pitcher/first baseman Cadie Hays in the third inning.
The scoring assault from big bats has become the signature of the Bulldogs (23-8) as they head into the playoffs.
“We all have times where some of us are off, and some of us are on,” German said. “It feels like we’ve finally put it all together in time for the playoffs, which is the time to do it.”
German has hit half of her home runs in the month of April against some of District 26-6A’s best pitching.
She belted one against Dripping Springs ace Haiden Anderson in a 7-5 loss to the district champion Tigers. Her other two were against Lake Travis’ freshman ace, Julie Rodriguez. She also hit one off Del Valle ace Tiffany Sanchez in March.
“We’ve played in a really tough district with a lot of really good pitching,” German said. “I think playing in a district like this, facing the pitching we’ve seen, that’s going to help us a lot in the postseason.”
Since losing to Lake Travis on March 22, Bowie has outscored opponents 74-34 in its last nine games. In that stretch, the Bulldogs have notched seven home runs, three triples and 17 doubles. German has accounted for four of those doubles and four home runs.
“She has 32 RBIs, which is easy to overlook, but important,” Wissel said. “All of our lineup has really started to hit the ball really well. I would definitely say this is a good time to start hitting the ball.”
Bowie will face Stony Point in a best-of-three bi-district series beginning Thursday.