After gear stolen off bus, Keller softball still defeats Eastwood in UIL playoff game

Just hours before they were scheduled to play in area UIL playoffs, Keller High School's softball team discovered all of their equipment had been stolen from the charter bus parked outside of their Midland hotel. But with the help and support of others, the team still won 4-2 over El Paso's Eastwood High School in the second-round playoff game on Friday.

The team will now advance to round three of 6A playoffs.

Here's what we know about what took place over the weekend.

The Keller softball won Game 1. The next morning, the team found its equipment stolen

Keller High School's softball team won the first game against Eastwood High School on Thursday, 1-0, in the 6A area playoffs hosted at Midland Legacy High School last weekend.

The following morning, team members opened the bottom of their charter bus outside of the Holiday Inn Express hotel in Midland to discover all 18 bags of the equipment had been stolen overnight.

One bag contained an Apple air tag, which led police and parents to a dumpster at an Odessa apartment, according to CBS News. But only some of the bags were retrieved, and there was no equipment inside them.

Fortunately, thanks to a rain delay, the game originally set for 6 p.m. was pushed back to 8 p.m., affording the team more time to replace the stolen equipment, much of which held sentimental value as it had been in their possession for years.

"Two gloves, two to three bats, personal items — the works; It was all gone," Assistant Coach Jessica Pauls told CBS News. "I thought it was a fever dream to be honest with you. I just couldn't believe it. It just seemed like something out of a movie that we were making up."

That's when the softball community, among others, flooded the team with support.

Texas Rangers, Dick's Sporting Goods and Academy reach out to support Keller softball team

After the news of the theft made its rounds on social media, hundreds of people jumped in to offer their support: parents, local schools, and softball teams from the nearby community colleges and universities, among several others.

According to CBS News, the Texas Rangers baseball team even donated $1,000 to the team, while the local Academy and Dick's Sporting Goods gave the team a significant discount on new gear.

Despite the odds against them, the team still defeated Eastwood 4-2. Senior pitcher Sadie Beck, who has committed to Tarleton State University, pitched eight strikeouts and allowed only three hits during Friday's game, contributing to the team's advancement to the third round.

"This could have gone one of two ways," Pauls told CBS News. "It could have been really just been a negative turning point. (But) we were going to win a ballgame — borrowed equipment or not. So, we got a bunch of gloves and a bunch of bats and a bunch of helmets that didn't belong to any of us and we went out and we won a playoff game. It was incredible," Pauls told CBS News.

After their win, Midland detectives called coaches to inform them that their equipment was found on the side of the highway, about 30 minutes from their hotel. While some of the gear was damaged, gloves and sentimental items remained intact — and it's believed that all equipment made it back home to their city in Dallas-Fort Worth.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas softball team wins HS playoff game after all equipment stolen