AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) – Special Olympics Texas held the 2024 West Regional Basketball Competition on Saturday at Courtside Sports Complex.

There were 214 athletes competing in a basketball competition that consisted of round robin and bracket play.

It was a day filled with basketball, friendships and just a whole lot of fun.

“Well I don’t know that anybody could be any happier than the athletes that are on the court competing,” Special Olympics West Texas Region Executive Director, J’nette Thorne said. “We have some that are just super excited just to be here and then we have some that are super competitive.”

“Different athletes can come out and play and enjoy it and win. If they don’t win, they are still winner in every sense,” basketball player Tommy German said.

“All of us are playing good sportsmanship. All of these teams are all that and like I always say to my team, it doesn’t matter if we win or lose, it’s how we play the game,” basketball player Heather Handley said.

The next Special Olympics Texas event is coming up on June 15. It is the Bubba’s 33 4th annual kickball tournament. Thorne says they invite the community to come out and get on a team with the athletes.

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A four-run sixth inning was not enough for No. 1 Texas Softball.

The game that could have been a dominating win for the Aggies ended in a thriller separated by a single run and two assistant coach ejections, as the Longhorns fell 6-5 in Austin.

When Texas A&M led 6-0 at the top of the sixth inning, Texas assistant coach Steve Singleton and A&M’s Russ Heffley got heated in the diamond. Heffley walked into the diamond yelling after Texas first baseman Katie Stewart had her foot on the bag as Aggie third baseman Kennedy Powell tripped over Stewart’s shin and sent her tumbling. Singleton immediately went to confront him.

“Following the final out of the top of the sixth inning, Texas inquired about the contact ruled incidental at first base,” said Austin Super Regional Crew Chief Paul Edds. “An assistant coach from each team met the umpires at home plate. At the conclusion of the discussion, the umpires were trying to escort the coaches to return to their respective dugouts to continue the game when inappropriate comments were exchanged and both coaches were given a behavioral ejection.”

Texas A&M pitcher Emiley Kennedy was key for the Aggie victory and held the Longhorns to no runs until the sixth inning. At the bottom of the sixth, freshman pinch hitter Vic Hunter brought Texas back in the game with a grand slam, and in the seventh, catcher Reese Atwood got herself a solo homer.

“Yeah, the late-game success against Kennedy is definitely momentum going into tomorrow’s game,” Atwood said. “I think we now know that we can do it now. The first few innings were a struggle against Kennedy, she’s a great pitcher, so seeing the fight at the end shows what we are going to come in and do tomorrow.”

Texas must win the second game of the series to survive an early tournament elimination.

MCMINNVILLE Ore. (KPTV) – The top-seeded Linfield softball program did it again Friday in McMinnville as the Wildcats keep dancing in the Division III tournament.

You gotta win one to win two and these Wildcats did just that with emphasis: 11-0 in game two, 13-to-1, mercy rules in five innings, both times out.

Coach Jackson Vaughan’s club of Catballers is now 48-and-2, Super-Regional champs with a ticket for the Division III World Series in back-to-back years.

“Literally if we would have lost, we’d just be going home tomorrow, and the team just dissipates and now at least we get to end it on the road together and end it win or lose in Texas,” Vaughan said.

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Junior second baseman Brynn Nelson went 6-for-8 at the plate and bopped a pair of homers against the Central College Dutch from Iowa as the ‘Cats keep scratching for the ultimate prize together.

“Getting back there and pushing for all three of our seniors and give them another game and extend our season one more week was our why. It was my personal why and it was a lot of our whys to keep playing together and getting a second chance on where we think we can do better,” Nelson said. “I do wear a lot of pride wearing Linfield and I’m so proud to be part of this team.”

Myrtle Point’s Tayah Kelley came back from throwing 196 pitches in 11 innings on Thursday to allowing just four hits combined in both five innings affairs on Friday for the senior All-American’s final game at home.

“It’s kind of surreal just because I have been here so long and now, I know that I won’t be playing again on this field, but I couldn’t have left it any happier than I could today, so it was worth it all,” Kelley said.

Sunday is graduation and on Tuesday, Linfield boards the bird ahead of their first game in the double-elimination eight-team tourney where the mercury will hover around 90 to 100 degrees on the Texas turf.

“Just because you make it there doesn’t mean anything once you get there,” Kelley said. “So it’s kind of about keeping your skill levels up and staying in the moment because we worked so hard to get here so why not just enjoy it while we’re there and play our butts off?”

These Wildcats last won it all in 2007 and 2011 and now they’ll head down to Marshall, Texas next week in the Elite Eight to become No. 1 as they are also seeded No. 1 here in this Division III tournament at Del Smith Stadium in McMinnville.

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