Abilene Wylie baseball answers late Lubbock Coronado push for one-run victory – Abilene Reporter-News
The Wylie baseball team was questioned late in Friday’s game and it came through with the answer, hustle, in the 3-2 win against Lubbock Coronado at Bulldog Field.
After spending the entire game with a 1-0 lead, the No. 11 Bulldogs (17-5 overall, 7-2 District 4-5A) gave up a pair of runs in the top of the sixth inning. Coronado’s Tucker Gideon singled, Sawyer Robertson tripled and Charlie Robinson singled to bring home two runs.
But Wylie answered right back with two runs in the home half and held on to win.
“I don’t think they ever think they’re out of it,” Wylie coach Grant Martin said of his team. “I know I believe in them, I don’t think there’s a chance that sways from their mind. That’s a very, very good team over there and we’re blessed to be in a district where we have to gear up every single day. … Great win for us, great team win.”
It all started with a hustle play from Reed Hughes.
The senior hit a fly ball to right that got caught up in the wind. Coronado’s right fielder made a diving attempt, but couldn’t hang onto the ball. Hughes busted it out of the box, never slowed down and ended up on second base with a double.
Cooper Hrbacek bunted him to third and Balin Valentine’s fly ball to right, that could have scored Hughes on a sac fly, was dropped. After an error got Valentine to second, Riley Hood brought him home with a single for the game-winning run.
“We preach that from the beginning of the year to the end, we talked about that tonight, how important it was to run through bags,” Martin said. “I thought today, during the game, we did some things where we had chances to score runs and just popped up. … The wind picked up, it seemed like at a good time, and it was a great hustle play by (Hughes) to get down the line and get all the way to second.”
There was no seventh-inning suspense as Brooks Gay sat the 12th-ranked Mustangs (19-6, 6-3) down in order with a line out and two ground outs. It capped off the complete-game win for Gay who allowed the two runs on five hits with no walks and seven strikeouts.
“I asked him how he was (before the seventh inning), and he said, ‘I’m going back out,'” Martin said. “I think they did a good job hitting him and getting to him (in the sixth), but he did a great job there doing what he needed to do to win the game in the seventh.”
There were plenty of chances for the Bulldogs to increase their lead, even in the first inning. After Jaxon Hansen hit an RBI single to score Valentine, he ended up on second but was stranded there.
Wylie left the bases loaded in the third and left runners on second and third in the fourth. But down by a run, the bats found a way late in the game.
“As we looked, as it transpires, we have faith in everybody that goes up to the plate and those guys know it,” Martin said. “If they’re in the lineup, we expect things out of everybody. We tell that to guys on the bench, be ready when your number is called. … We knew this was going to be a fight, we were glad to be at home.”
The win gave the Bulldogs the series victory against Coronado, 2-1. Wylie won the series opener 9-0 on March 19, but fell 13-8 after falling behind 7-0 after one inning on Tuesday in Lubbock.
Battling back to pull within five after trailing 12-5, even in the loss, gave Wylie some momentum. Now the Bulldogs will try to take momentum from Friday’s win into next week’s games against District 4-5A leader Lubbock-Cooper.
The Pirates won 8-5 on March 20, after scoring six runs in the seventh.
Game 2 of the series is at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Woodrow with the final game at Wylie on Friday. The Bulldogs will try to get a big road win to give them a chance to take the series back at home.
“We’ve got to do a better job of going on the road and being ready to play,” Martin said. “We’ll talk about that on Monday. Not that we’ve gone and haven’t competed or played, but we’ve got to do a better job. Maybe that’s on me. … We’ll enjoy this one and prep for Lubbock-Cooper coming up.”
DISTRICT 4-5A
No. 11 Wylie 3, No. 12 Lubbock Coronado 2
Coronado 000 002 0—2 5 2
Wylie 100 002 X—3 7 2
Tucker Gideon, Esai Torres (4) and Layden White. Brooks Gay at Landon Williams. W — Gay. L — Torres. 2B — Coronado: Carson Shields; Wylie: Reed Hughes. 3B — Coronado: Sawyer Robertson. RBIs — Coronado: Robertson, Sawyer Robinson; Wylie: Jaxon Hansen, Riley Hood. Runs — Coronado: Gideon, Robertson; Wylie: Valentine 2, Hughes.
Notes — Torres came in to pitch with one out in the fourth inning.
Records — Lubbock Coronado 19-6, 6-3; Wylie 17-5, 7-2.
Jordan Hofeditz covers Abilene high schools and colleges, Big Country schools and other local sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jhofeditz. If you appreciate locally drive news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.
