Walk off! Josh Garcia's home run pushes Tuloso-Midway past Bishop to open series
It was apparent early that runs were likely not going to be scored by Bishop and Tuloso-Midway in conventional ways Thursday, but in the seventh Josh Garcia provided the biggest hit of the game in more ways than one.
Garcia smacked a three-run home run to right with two outs in the seventh inning to give the Warriors a 7-4 victory in Game 1 of a Class 4A regional quarterfinal series at Cabaniss Baseball Field. The series will resume Friday with Game 2.
Until Garcia's bomb, Thursday's game featured infield singles, bunts, stolen bases, plenty of walks and some key errors where some led to runs, and both teams kept finding ways to put runners on put pressure on each other's defenses throughout the game.
Once in the seven innings was a squad retired in order when Tuloso-Midway was three up and three down in the first inning. After that, though, both squads made sure to keep putting pressure on. There were a combined two errors and 16 walks, and 13 hits.
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The crucial seventh inning
The Warriors were down to their last out when Garcia came to the plate, but had two runners on as Eloy Rios reached on an infield single, and Javier Vela walked. Garcia then took a 3-1 pitch from reliever Jaden Arriaga for the game-winning home run.
It was one of six hits for the Warriors on the night as they were held hitless in the third through sixth innings.
Rallying to lead and then to tie
The Warriors were down by two runs after one inning as the Badgers were aggressive early at the plate and scored the runs on four base hits in the opening inning. But in the second, though, Tuloso-Midway took advantage of three walks and three infield singles to score four runs to take the lead.
During that inning the Warriors' Josh Garcia, starting pitcher Max Lara and Eloy Rios all recorded RBIs and did not have a ball leave the infield. It was the same for Bishop when they tied score in the third and fourth innings, as both runs scored on errors to tie the game.
Up next
The two District 31-4A squads will meet in Game 2 at 7 p.m. Friday at Steve Chapman Field in Calallen.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Tuloso-Midway's Josh Garcia hits walk-off HR to top Bishop to start series
