Lando Belcher comes in clutch to help Jacksboro baseball force Game 3 vs. Shallowater
ABILENE — With Jacksboro's season on the brink, there was no one better to come to the plate than Lando Belcher.
The senior tied the game with a home run in the fifth inning, and his last at-bat was just as crucial.
Belcher belted a double to start a string of nine consecutive two-out batters for the Tigers, who trailed by one entering the seventh. Jacksboro tallied five runs and held on for a 7-5 win over Shallowater in Game 2 of their Region I-3A semifinal baseball series Thursday at Walt Driggers Field.
The result forced a decisive Game 3 after the Mustangs won the opener 7-6 Wednesday.
Lando Belcher begins Jacksboro avalanche
Down 3-2, the Tigers' first two batters of the seventh were retired. Up stepped Belcher, who will walk the stage Friday. He wanted to extend his time sporting purple.
"Just thinking about how I don't want it to end right here," Belcher said. "Just doing everything I can to get on base and get it to the next guy, let me teammates do the rest."
His teammates did, along with help from Shallowater.
A passed ball put Belcher on third base, and a throwing error on a steal of second allowed him to score the tying run. That was one of two errors in the frame, with both leading to runs. The Mustangs' bullpen also hit a batter and issued a walk with the bases loaded to put Jacksboro up 7-3.
"We had some opportunities to make some plays to still come out with the win in that game," Shallowater coach Ben Huffman said. "Unfortunately they capitalized on our mistakes and we just didn't get it done."
Tigers enjoy seventh inning for second game
The Tigers also had run-scoring hits by Wyatt Gavit and Kasey Ray Swan in the big frame. It continued a trend from Game 1, when Jacksboro scored three runs in its last at-bat.
"It's not a good way to do things," Tigers coach Blake Belcher quipped. "We need to start better. That's gonna be what we're talking about all the way up until Saturday. We've got to come out ready to play. I don't think we're not ready to play, it's just some things happen and you get down a little bit when you shouldn't. It's a long baseball game."
The result spoiled a 10-strikeout outing by Mustangs starter Brayden Gurney. Gurney allowed seven hits, three prior to Belcher's two-run homer in the fifth.
Pitching staffs depleted entering Game 3
Jacksboro's Jackson McComis scattered five hits with no earned runs over 5⅔ innings. Lando Belcher took over and picked up the win, notching his third strikeout to end the game with runners on the corners.
The Tigers have used five pitchers in the series, as has Shallowater. That puts a spotlight on the available arms for Saturday's winner-take-all contest, which is set for 1 p.m. Saturday at Driggers Field.
"I just told them Saturday's really anybody's ballgame," Huffman said. "And it's really gonna come down to which team wants it more, who's gonna gut up and go get one Saturday. … Next man up. Whoever can throw is gonna go up there and give us a chance to compete and to win."
REGION I-3A SEMIFINAL
GAME 2
Jacksboro 7, Shallowater 5
Jacksboro 000 020 5 — 7 9 3
Shallowater 010 101 2 — 5 7 3
Jackson McComis and Lando Belcher (6). Brayden Gurney, Izayah Ward (7) and Ryan Dugger (7). W — Belcher. L — Gurney. 2B — Jacksboro, Belcher. Shallowater, Ward, Kaedyn Carter. HR — Jacksboro, Belcher.
Records: Shallowater 28-8; Jacksboro 29-8-1.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lando Belcher leads Jacksboro baseball over Shallowater in Game 2
