GC Baseball: Tigers shut-000-000-0-ut Ennis twice
Mar. 29—This wasn't just a sweep or a clean sweep, it was a complete shutout sweep — a 14-inning, back-to-back shutout after shutout sweep.
Corsicana's Tigers swept Ennis in their two-game district series this week without allowing a run, slamming the door 7-0 on Tuesday at Price Field and completing the scoreless streak with an 8-0 win Thursday to run the 000fer streak to 14-innings.
They did it with a pitching staff that had more questions than career victories when the season began — a young pitching staff that has become one of the biggest reasons this incredibly young Tiger team is 6-0 in the District 14-5A race and 15-4 for the season.
They've won nine in a row and 12 of their last 13 games, starting on Feb. 29 when the Tigers delivered Coach Heath Autrey's 400th career victory.
Here's the stat of the season: During the Tiger nine-game winning streak the pitching staff has thrown six shutouts and allowed a total of just eight runs while scoring 58 times, including outscoring Ennis 15-0 this week.
Easton Autrey shut down the Lions Tuesday on four singles over seven innings while striking out six and walking one, dropping his ERA down to 0.467 (he has allowed just one earned run this season) and raising his strikeouts to 11 over 15 innings. Autrey is now 2-0 with a save this season. He also drove in two runs and scored Tuesday, personally outscoring the Lions.
Adrian Baston led off and drove Ennis nuts all week. He belted a home run to highlight his 3-for-4 performance Tuesday when he scored three runs and drove in three runs in the 7-0 wipeout.
Connor Perkins not only pitches. He's a dangerous hitter as well. He went 2-for-2 with a double, scored and drove in two runs on Tuesday and Dylan Anderton drove in a run. Garret Joles and Oscar Castaneda both scored on an error to the outfield to complete the scoring.
Perkins combined with Isaiah Miranda to slam the door Thursday. Perkins gave up three singles while striking out four over six scoreless innings to lower his season ERA to 0.706 Thursday, and Miranda tossed a hitless seventh with a strikeout.
The Tigers made it easy on Perkins in Ennis, where they scored three in the top of the first and three in the second.
Autrey walked, Portillo singled on a liner to left and Perkins was hit by a pitch to load the bases in the first inning for Anderton, who promptly bunted in a run for a 1-0 lead, and then Trenton Bruton hit a flyball to left that was mishandled to bring in two more runs.
Castaneda led off the second with a double, moved to third on Baston's bunt single and scored on Autrey's line drive single to right. Portillo brought Baston home on a grounder to third and after Perkins drew a one-out walk, Bruton's sac fly brought home a 6-0 lead.
Portillo doubled and scored on back-to-back passed balls in the fourth and Bruton doubled and scored on Gabe Sodd's line drive single to center in the fifth.
The Tigers, who are halfway through their district schedule and tied for first-place with Forney, have a bye in district this week. They will play three non-district games to stay sharp, facing Mabank in a doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m. Tuesday and Whitney at 1 p.m. Saturday — all three games are at Price Field.
