Friday nights have been alright for the Kingwood Park softball team.
For the third straight week, the Panthers showed out on their home field and came away with a District 18-5A victory.
The final result was a bit closer than how the game actually went, but the Panthers will take it as they defeated Porter 9-5.
The home side bleachers were filled, including members of the Panthers 2025 UIL COED state champion cheerleading team.
“I love playing on turf, No. 1,” Kingwood Park senior Abbey Papadimitriou said afterwards. “All of our fans are really supportive. We just want to do well for them. They give us that extra feeling of spirit. And the cheerleaders were here today – and they are really good cheerleaders. It’s just nice to play at home because it’s like family.”
Kingwood Park (9-4, 3-2) came in off a gut-wrenching loss to Dayton Tuesday night where they battled back from a large deficit to tie it at 8-all before falling 10-9. Papadimitriou, who was 2-for-4 that night with two RBIs, was the catalyst against the Spartans (10-8, 3-3) with a 3-for-3 game, including a two-run homer and a double.
“We were feeling the fire and it really gave us momentum going into this game,” Papadimitriou said. “We really just wanted to win. We have a bunch of heart. We’re going to work hard and win.”
There were some emotions and tears after the Dayton game. But head coach Lindsay Gregory took that as a positive thing – this team cares – and was proud of the fight.
“Tuesday night we had a lot to be proud of,” she said. “Obviously, we didn’t start out the way that we wanted. But I was proud of the fight. We can go a long way with a team that has fight and has heart. And that’s what this team has. We’re young, we’re going to make silly mistakes and I’ve said that from the beginning.”
On Friday, Allie Minick scored the first run of the night on a wild pitch. It was 1-0 until the fourth when Papadimitriou scored on an error and Minick then drove in Keilee Brown, who homered and had three RBIs at Dayton.
Ava Klinefelter, who later tripled in the sixth, ripped a double down the right field line to trigger a three-run spurt in the fifth. Addi Gomez doubled home Klinefelter and in stepped Papadimitriou.
“I was just going in there looking for something I could hit hard,” Papadimitriou, who homered twice last year against Porter, said. “And it happened.”
The ‘it’ was a two-run homer over the left field fence to make it a 6-0 game.
Junior pitcher Haylee Seale later made it 7-0 with an RBI double.
A Gomez RBI single and an RBI groundout by Brown gave Kingwood Park insurance runs they might not have known they needed.
Porter did score once in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Skyler Westfall. It then scored four times in the seventh as Kingwood Park helped extend the inning with a couple errors. Avery Evans-Pickens had a bases loaded walk and Westfall added two more RBIs on a single.
Otherwise, it was an excellent start in the circle by Seales, who pitched 5⅓ innings or relief Tuesday against the Broncos.
Against Porter, Seales gave up one earned run and walked six (including a pair of intentional walks). She struck out two and gave up four hits. Seales had five strikeouts and two earned runs Tuesday as she came on for starter Minick.
“We told Haylee her time was going to come this year,” Gregory said. “She has continually trusted the process. When her moment came, she’s showed up in the biggest moments. She’s not the only arm we have. We have Hadley (Heineman) and Carley Barbontin, who both can pitch. We have some depth. There’s not a lot of experience, but we have depth. When Allie is not available or able to go or Allie feels better in a relief role, we have the arms to get it done.”
Kingwood Park totaled 11 hits to support Seales and played error-free until the end. Seales help strand seven Porter base runners.
“The six innings before that were a complete team effort,” Gregory said. “That’s the best we’ve looked from pitching to defense to offense. Top to bottom, everyone was producing.”
Porter, which beat Splendora 5-3 Tuesday, hasn’t won consecutive games since Feb. 21 and 25.
Kingwood Park, meanwhile, leaps above Porter in the district standings with the win. The two teams have recent history after splitting district games last year. The Panthers are now 13-3 all-time against the Spartans.
“The ones at home are the most important ones,” Gregory said. “We said if we could protect our home field and get these wins, it’s going to be huge down the stretch. Especially with Dayton and Crosby, they still have to come play us at our home.”
Kingwood Park travels to Splendora on Tuesday.
Kingwood Park junior Haylee Seales (1) delivers a pitch against Porter on March 21, 2025. (Chris Zorzi/SportCast Media)
