Damian Pantoya helps Lubbock-Cooper baseball provide some clarity in clouded district
WOODROW — It was just another game to Damian Pantoya, even if it was anything but.
In the wild, wild District 4-5A, the final week of the regular season was ripe for chaos with Pantoya and the Lubbock-Cooper baseball team in the thick of it. Endless possibilities existed entering Tuesday night's game against Abilene High. By the end, there was just one thing sorted out.
The Pirates have, at the very least, a piece of the district championship. And there's still more at stake.
Pantoya took the mound at First United Park knowing his team needed the win, something the Pirates didn't accomplish in the first two meetings with the Eagles. Even with some trouble finding the strike zone on a consistent basis, Pantoya wriggled his way out of jam after jam, putting five zeros on the scoreboard.
About 15 hours before signing his National Letter of Intent, becoming a Division I baseball player with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Pantoya tossed five shutout innings, struck out six and worked around five walks and a hit batsman. Tyler Spruiell fanned three in two innings of relief and the Pirates came away with a 4-0 victory.
"I'm happy with it," Pantoya said of his effort. "Any day I'll take five zeros on that scoreboard. I didn't really have a great feel for the fastball, but the slider came in handy there. And that really worked out for me with a slider and curveball. And then near the end of the third inning I really got a feel for that fastball. Then we started cruising."
Pantoya had just one 1-2-3 inning. The other four were stress-filled events resulting from bad breaks and bad spots. Each time, the Cooper (19-15 overall, 12-5 district) pitcher got out of the tight position.
None bigger than the final frame he pitched.
The Pirates held a 4-0 lead in the top of the fifth. A single, fielder's choice and back-to-back walks loaded the bases with one out for Abilene. As he did in the first, second and third innings — stranding three runners in scoring position in the process — Pantoya figured it out, getting Trey Simpson to pop out to second and striking out five-hole hitter Jake Brekenridge on an 0-2 count.
"Damian's competitive," Lubbock-Cooper coach Brad Wuensche said. "Sometimes you're not always gonna have your best stuff. Sometimes the zone is kind of small, which it was a good zone tonight, but it's one of those things where the competitor usually wins out and Damian is just a tremendous competitor."
Abilene head coach Brad Harman lamented his team's stranded base runners as a big piece to the defeat. The Eagles left nine men on base in the seven innings.
Koen Piepkorn, Timothy Haynes and Cutter Douglas each had two hits with the latter two providing two RBI apiece. That was enough offense thanks to Pantoya's five-inning victory and Spruiell's quality relief outing.
The victory provides a bit of clarity on the district playoff picture, though not much.
Lubbock-Cooper will earn at least a share of the district title, that much is known. Thanks to a win over Coronado on Tuesday, Abilene Wylie will host Cooper on Friday in a game that will decide the rest of the field — kind of.
Wylie (11-6 district) and Cooper split the first two games of their series. If the Pirates are victorious, they'll be the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. Should Wylie win, then it depends what Monterey (11-6) does in its game against Lubbock High. A three-way tie is possible for the No. 1 seed between Wylie, Cooper and Monterey.
But for the Pirates, the math is simple.
They control their own destiny, something that wasn't the case just a few weeks ago. Abilene High, meanwhile, has wrapped up regular-season play. The Eagles (14-16, 11-7) will have to wait and see which seed they wind up with.
"The last five games, we've been in the playoffs," Wunesche said. "It's really been like that for everybody in this district. Every game is paramount, and you can't take a breath at all.
"We're just gonna treat it like it's the next game, like we have every game in this district. So just really trying to go out and play good baseball and move on. Correct pitches, use the middle of the field and let the pieces fall out."
District 4-5A baseball
Lubbock-Cooper 4, Abilene High 0
Abilene 000 000 0 — 0 4 1
Lubbock-Cooper 103 000 x — 4 7 0
Diego Flores. Damian Pantoya and Tyler Spruiell (6). W — Pantoya. L — Flores. 3B — Lubbock-Cooper, Koen Piepkorn.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Damian Pantoya helps Lubbock-Cooper baseball provide some clarity in clouded district
