GC Baseball: Hallsville downs Tigers 5-1 to take Game 1
May 10—BULLARD — After a stunning and surprising season, suddenly Corsicana's Tigers find themselves in a hole after losing the opening game in the best-of-three Area Round series to Hallsville 5-1 Thursday night at Bullard's Brookhill High School's baseball facility.
The Tigers, a team that has grown so much, finding ways to win all year, now finds itself looking for a way to cure a back injury. Things were tough enough this season, a season that began with the youngest Tiger team in Coach Heath Autrey's 13-years at Corsicana. But Autrey's kids defied the odds and won the district title with an 11-1 record and entered the playoffs with a 24-5 record.
But now that the Tigers have reached the playoffs they have to win without one of the top young players in the nation.
Easton Autrey, a sophomore who is ranked in the top 50 players in country in his graduating class, is out with a bad back. Easton isn't just a monster at the plate, where he was hitting .400. He's been a key arm on the mound, going 3-0 with a 1.12 ERA this season.
He's got lightning in his bat — all four of his homers were memorable laser-type shots — and patience at the plate, where he's got an .583 on-base-percentage, a .693 slugging percentage and a 1.276 OPS. He has scored 26 runs and driven in 31 in 39 games.
He's part of Corsicana's 1-2 punch on the mound along with Connor Perkins, but neither pitched Thursday and Easton didn't pitch in the Bi-District round against Sherman, which the Tigers swept, winning two tight games, 1-0 and 6-4.
Perkins shut out Sherman to win Game 1 last week when the Tigers scored a run in the bottom of the sixth. Isaiah Miranda, pitched six strong innings, and left trailing 2-1, but got the win in Game 2 when Corsicana had a wild seventh that saw the Tigers score five runs on five walks and a pair of two-run doubles from Perkins and Josh Portillo to build a 6-2 lead. Brody Dobbs hung on in the bottom of the seventh.
Dobbs, who has had an impressive season on the mound, pitched Thursday and took the loss against Hallsville, giving up five runs (two earned) on six hits. Blake Cox pitched for Hallsville and tossed six scoreless innings, allowing five hits and leaving with a 5-0 lead. He also doubled and drove in two runs.
The Tigers scored a run in the seventh when Josh Portillo doubled home Blake Phillips. Portillo has driven in five runs in three playoff games — all in the seventh inning. Phillips scored a run in the seventh in all three playoff games.
The Tigers face a must-win situation at 7 p.m. Friday back at Brookhill High School in Bullard.
