Cleburne eliminated from playoff picture with 3-0 loss to Midlothian Heritage

Apr. 19—Cleburne's offensive woes continued as the Yellow Jackets were shut out for the fourth time in six games in a 3-0 loss Tuesday night to Midlothian Heritage at Yellow Jacket Field.

It was Cleburne's seventh straight loss — and eighth defeat in its past nine outings — in District 8-5A play as the Jackets, at 4-9, were officially eliminated from postseason contention.

In 13 district games, the Jackets are averaging 4.2 runs per game. If you take out two wins vs. last-place Arlington Seguin where Cleburne scored 8 and 22 runs, the Jackets' scoring average in their 11 other district games drops to 2.27 runs per game.

Cleburne Coach Ross Taylor attributes the Jackets' offensive struggles this season to a number of reasons.

"No. 1, I think we got a lot of guys that need to play better summer baseball," Taylor said. "You can't play down in leagues where you're the best guy on the field and nobody challenges you and you hit .480 in the summer. Then all of a sudden you're seeing everybody's [Nos.] 1 and 2 [pitchers] in district and it's better than anyone you saw last summer.

"No. 2, we've got way too many guys that are guessers. They want to barrel chase instead of developing a more compact, routine swing that gives them a chance to put the ball in play."

Taylor also said what they discuss and work on offensively in practice hasn't translated into games.

"All we talk about is, if you're ahead in the count, hunt fastballs," Taylor said. "Everybody teaches that. If you're behind in the count, now you've got to widen out but you have to own a half of the plate, and, to me, the half you've got to own is the inside half. If they come inside, it's either, I've got to wear it or I've got to pull it foul. I can't stand there and take a called third strike because they came inside. But for whatever reason, we do. It's not been just today, it's been a season-long deal where we don't want to wear pitches. This isn't the grand ole Cleburne of days past when they would take a bruise to win a game. I don't know why."

In Tuesday's loss, Midlothian Heritage pitcher Rylan Figueroa struck out six with five hits allowed in a complete-game shutout. It's the second time in district play that Cleburne has been shut out in back-to-back games.

After a scoreless first inning, Cleburne junior pitcher Mason Runnels appeared to have a second straight 1-2-3 inning when he got a ground-out to shortstop for out No. 3 of the second inning.

But after both teams retreated to their respective dugouts, Midlothian Heritage's coach appealed the call at first base and the umpires overturned the ruling and said the runner, Roman Vasquez, was safe at first on an infield single. After Vasquez stole second base, Wayne Tackett delivered a two-out RBI double for a 1-0 lead.

So the Jackets went from what was initially a three-up, three-down inning and six straight batters retired to start the game by Runnels, to suddenly being down a run. Despite the peculiarity of how things transpired, Taylor said it was still something the Jackets should have been able to overcome.

"I didn't see the play at first good enough to argue one way or the other," Taylor said. "The umpires got together and decided to overturn it. But you've got to overcome that kind of stuff. So what? You've got a runner at first with two outs. You have to be able to get a third out before that guy scores."

Cleburne had a golden chance to tie it or take the lead in the bottom of the second inning as Logan Schroyer and Ethan Polasek hit back-to-back one-out infield singles. After a dropped third strike allowed Schroyer and Polasek to advance one base to put two runners in scoring position, Figuera got a grounder to get out of the jam.

The Jaguars added to their lead in the third inning when 9-hole hitter Jason Barela hit a leadoff triple and scored on a Carter Rutenbar RBI single for a 2-0 lead. Midlothian Heritage made it 3-0 in the fifth inning when Barela drew a one-out walk, stole second base, stole third base and then scored on a sacrifice fly.

In the sixth inning, Zack Moore hit a leadoff single and was awarded second base after a balk as Cleburne tried getting a rally going. A.J. Tapia hit a well-struck line drive to the hole in the left side of the infield, but Heritage shortstop Caden Campbell made a diving snag for the out and threw to second base for a double play.

Figuera then struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh inning to finish off the complete-game shutout and end Cleburne's playoff chances.

Runnels had a strong outing as he went the distance and allowed six hits, three runs and one walk with eight strikeouts.

"I thought he threw well," Taylor said. "He has steadily gotten better throughout the season. For him and Pete Martinez, they've both gotten steadily better as we've gone on. But they're just now getting to where they should've been at the beginning of the season. We kept trying to tell them early, 'Look, boys, there isn't a fast forward to the playoffs.' ... But Runnels threw well last week and he threw well tonight. He's given us a chance both games but we've got to score some runs."

Cleburne will visit Midlothian Heritage at 7 p.m. Friday then the Jackets close out the season next week with two games vs. Mansfield Summit.

"You've got to play the upset role now, that's all we've got left," Taylor said. "We're officially out with this loss. It's a shame. It didn't have to be this way but it is this way. Everybody's a little frustrated right now. It's not like we think they don't want to score. I just think they think it's supposed to be easy. And there isn't anything easy about it. Everybody's giving us their best every time. Everybody knows this is a year where Cleburne has been down a little bit and everybody is coming after us with their best stuff because there's a lot of years some of these teams don't have a chance to beat us.

"It's a huge celebration when people beat us. When you look at our history over the past 15 to 20 years, everybody knows that we play pretty decent baseball here. And all season, everybody that played against us was waiting and you could tell they were worried that all of the sudden the light was going to switch. We kept hoping the light would switch, too, but it hasn't happened."