Keller High School softball team has equipment stolen, wins playoff game anyway
KELLER, Texas - The Keller High School softball team will continue on in the 6A playoffs despite their equipment being stolen between games.
Keller was in Midland to play El Paso Eastwood.
The teams played Game 1 of the playoff series on Thursday, winning 1-0.
When the team woke up on Friday morning to play Game 2 they found their equipment had been stolen from the team's charter bus at their hotel.
"All of our stuff was gone," said Jessica Pauls, Keller's assistant softball coach. "All 18 softball bags, softballs, tees, nets, buckets of balls, our athletic training equipment, all the bat bags had two bats, two gloves."
The team says in total it was thousands of dollars worth of gear.
"The community of Midland came together and then the community of DFW came together, and we all got borrowed equipment," said Pauls.
Several people in the area gave the team equipment to use for their game on Friday.
The Keller Indians beat Eastwood 4 - 2 in Game 2 to advance to the third round of the playoffs.
While the team was driving back to North Texas on Saturday, they got a call from police.
"Almost all of the equipment was found on the side of the highway. A lot of the bats were damaged, unfortunately. They just like tossed them out a window on the highway," said Pauls.
Nearly all of the stolen equipment has been recovered.
"There's a great phrase that we use: it's the Indian not the arrow," said Pauls. "So no matter the equipment that we use, borrowed or not, we're going to go out, and we're going to win."
