High school baseball roundup: Arlington, Boswell, Grapevine and more secure victories
The UIL high school baseball playoff race is starting to take shape. Here is a roundup of key games from around the Fort Worth-area.
Arlington shuts out Lamar to stay atop 8-6A
The Arlington High baseball team scored early and often and got a three-hit pitching performance from Dylan Buechele as the Colts downed Arlington Lamar 5-0 in a District 8-6A game on Friday at Arlington High School.
Arlington (15-10-1 overall, 9-1 in district) remains a game ahead of Arlington Martin who defeated Grand Prairie 13-1 on Friday night setting up a pivotal series between the district leaders next week.
Lamar (12-13, 7-3) still remains in the race for a playoff berth despite being swept by Arlington. The Colts defeated the Vikings 5-3 on Thursday at Lamar.
“We came to play and getting up early was very helpful,” said Arlington coach Brian Womack. “We talk about trying to score first and getting three in the first and two in the second allows you to settle in and just play. I’m very proud of them in their approach tonight, hitting the ball around the first couple of innings and working to get on base.”
Arlington got a one-out single from Barrett Howard followed by an RBI triple by Jackson Irons to give the Colts a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Mason Hensley and Ryan Ott followed with run-scoring singles to up the lead to 3-0 after one.
After two quick outs in the bottom of the second, Kaden Wharton and Howard both reach and moved to second and third on a passed ball. Irons followed lining a ball off the pitchers foot and into left field to score two more and up the lead to 5-0.
“He’s such a heady player,” said Womack of Irons, who’s headed to McLennan College in Waco in the fall. “He’s going to take his walks and when you have a big hitter in the middle of your lineup who is willing to take his walks and not expand the zone and then when he gets a ball in the zone he can hit the ball a country mile.”
Buechele, a University of Oklahoma signee, took over from there. The senior, and nephew of former Texas Rangers third baseman Steve Buechele, scattered four hits and struck out six in six innings of work.
“I think it was just really locating the fastball and then hitting them away with the slider,” said Buechele. “I think as a team that it was a complete game all around. I think we’re heading right where we need to be going into the series with Martin.”
Buechele’s only trouble came in the top of the fourth when an error and a ringing double by Colton Quesada put runners at second and third with one out. Colts second baseman Danny Bustamante made a nice catch of a ball sinking quickly to right for the second out and catcher Jeremiah Taylor picked Quesada off second base to end the threat.
Womack came out to the mound with one out in the sixth after a walk by Buechele, intending to take him out, but Buechele shook his head and told Womack “oh no, no...I need another one.” Buechele got a pair of fielder’s choice outs to end the inning.
“When you have that kind of confidence and he’s your dude, as well as a leader on this team, and he says that with supreme confidence, then, yes, lets ride and he finished the inning,” said Womack.
“Everyone did their job tonight,” said Buechele. “Our defense did a good job of backing me up tonight, can’t thank them enough.
“Catcher Jeremiah Taylor, throwing a guy out, did an awesome job. (Ryan) Laney coming in closing the game...this is what we imagined we would be like last year and now we’re ready.”
Boswell beats Weatherford to stay undefeated in District 3-6A
Fort Worth Boswell went extra innings for the second time this week with Weatherford and came away winners both times, downing the Kangaroo 6-5 in eight innings in a District 3-6A game on Friday at Boswell High School.
Boswell (20-4 overall, 10-0 in district) opened and three-game lead over Weatherford (19-6-1, 7-3). The Pioneers got two runs in the top of the eighth at Weatherford on Tuesday in a 2-0 win.
Fort Worth Paschal (11-12-2, 7-3) is also three games behind Boswell. The Pioneers swept Paschal in mid March.
After two were out in the bottom of the eighth in a tie game, Boswell loaded the bases with a pair of walks to Mason Bell and Ramon Corona before Chase Plowman was hit by a pitch.
Mak Lerma followed getting hit by a 1-1 pitch as well to score Bell.
Weatherford had taken a 5-2 lead over the Pioneers in the top of the seventh when Jett Vindiola lined a triple to right scoring J.T. Cienega and Colton McClure.
But Boswell answered with three in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game. A hit batter with the bases loaded and two bases loaded walks by Weatherford pushed the runs across.
The Roos walked 13 batters on the night and hit six more, including Corona three times.
Mansfield creates four-way tie for first in 11-6A
Mansfield scored seven runs in the first two innings and then rode the one-hit pitching performance of Cade Julius as the Tigers earned a series split with Waxahachie with a 7-2 win on Friday in a District 11-6A game at Mansfield High School.
The win for Mansfield (16-7-1 overall, 7-3 district) creates a four-way tie for first place in 11-6A with Waxahachie (19-6, 7-3), Mansfield Legacy (15-10-1, 7-3) and Mansfield Lake Ridge (14-8-1, 7-3).
The Indians run ruled Mansfield 13-2 in five innings on Wednesday.
Braxton Van Cleave, David Hogg and Aidan Simmons each had two hits and scored two runs for the Tigers. The trio led off the bottom of the first with hits as Van Cleave doubled and Hogg and Simmons each singled.
Simmons scored on a wild pitch, Hogg came home on a ground out and Simmons upped the lead to 3-0, scoring on an error.
In the second, Van Cleave had an RBI single knocking in J Ellis who led off with a double. Hogg and Simmons followed with singles.
Van Cleave scored on another wild pitch to make it 5-1. Hogg scored on an error by the shortstop and Simmons came home on a sacrifice fly by J Wylie.
Julius was stellar allowing just the one hit and two runs, one earned, in each of the first and seventh innings. Julius went all seven innings striking out 11 and walking two.
Chase Pearrow’s double to left to lead off the game was the only hit for the Indians.
Southlake Carroll blanks Haslet Eaton
Southlake Carroll cruised to a 9-0 home victory against Haslet Eaton on Friday.
Evan Robson powered the offense with three hits and a team high four RBIs. Hayes Melville and Anthony Llera tallied extra base hits while Grant Moore tallied two hits, one of which was a triple.
Defensively, Southlake Carroll was solid with zero errors. Ethan Baiotto shined on the mound, shutting down the Eagle offense with nine strikeouts.
In a seven inning complete game shutout, Baiotto allowed three hits and zero runs.
The Dragons (5-3 District 4-6A) moved up to first place in district with Keller Fossil Ridge’s 5-0 loss to Keller. Southlake Carroll, Fossil Ridge and Timber Creek are tied for first with 5-3 records.
Keller, with six wins and three losses, is right behind the trio of top squads in a competitive district.
Grapevine thumps Denton, continues dominant run
The Grapevine Mustangs are undefeated in District 7-5A play, and continued their steak on Friday with a 10-0 run rule victory over Denton.
Dasan Hill, a DBU commit, tossed six scoreless inning, allowing two hits and striking out 14 batters. The Mustang offense did more than enough with seven hits and also capitalized on three Denton errors.
The game was scoreless until Grapevine broke through in the fourth inning with five runs. The Mustangs tallied four runs in the sixth to end the ball game one inning early.
Grapevine’s next district opponent is Argyle, the second place team in 7-5A with seven wins and one loss. The Eagles have three state championship wins since 2015 while the Mustangs have one.
District 3-6A
Paschal 4, Chisholm Trail 2
L.D. Bell 5, North Crowley 1
Trinity 2, Crowley 0
District 4-6A
Keller 5, Fossil Ridge 0
Southlake Carroll 9, Eaton 0
Byron Nelson 3, Central 2
District 8-6A
South Grand Prairie 14, Bowie 0
Martin 13, Grand Prairie 1
Haltom 7, Sam Houston 2
District 11-6A
Legacy 1, Lake Ridge 0
Duncanville 8, Skyline 3
Cedar Hill 11, DeSoto 4
Non-district
Timber Creek 3, Granbury 0
