H.S. baseball: Abilene Wylie fends Cooper with its bats

The pitching and defense weren’t all that clean, not after going a week without a game. But the Wylie Bulldogs more than made up for it with their bats.

Brady Clark’s three-run home run broke open a three-run game in the third inning, and the Bulldogs downed Abilene Cooper 9-3 in a District 4-5A baseball game Tuesday at Wylie High School.

Wylie made four errors and its pitchers hit four batters, but the Bulldogs still found a way to win their second straight game.

“The kids did a good job,” Wylie coach Grant Martin said. “Again, and I’m not making any excuses, we looked like a team that hadn’t played in a week. So, we’ve got to go back and do some work week this week.

“But playing is always good. Winning is always good. My hat’s off to them (Cooper). They always battle us. They’re coached very well. Our kids did what they needed to do. We needed to win, and that’s all that matters.”

The win avenged a 7-1 loss at Cooper on March 31 and kept the Bulldogs (15-9-1 overall, 9-5 district) within a half-game of front-running Lubbock-Cooper (17-15, 10-5), which beat Lubbock High 15-2 to take sole possession of the district lead.

Lubbock Monterey knocked off Abilene High 12-0 at Blackburn Field to pull into a tie with the Eagles for fourth at 9-6 in district.

Lubbock Coronado, which beat Amarillo Caprock 9-4 in a non-district game is tied with Wylie for second at 9-5.

Abilene Cooper (12-14, 4-11) was eliminated from the playoff hunt.

Coogs start fast, Wylie answers

The Cougars jumped on Wylie early, getting a run in the second inning to lead 1-0.

Alejandro Ibarra got a leadoff single, and Garrett Castillo moved Brady Henderson, running for Ibarra, over with a sacrifice bunt. Henderson stole third with two outs, and he scored when the throw from the catcher sailed into left field for an error.

Wylie, though, answered with a four-run outburst in the bottom of the second, all after Ibarra, Cooper’s starting pitcher, struck out the first two batters. Clark reached second on a two-out error. Colby Garrett and Braden Regala each followed with RBI singles. The hit parade continued. K.J. Long hit an RBI single and scored on Reese Borho’s triple for a 4-1 lead.

Clark added a three-run blast in the third, after Hays Sipe and Collin Bruning led off the inning with singles. The homer gave the Bulldogs breathing room.

“It was a huge hit,” Martin said of Clark’s homer. “He’s been swinging it well in practice. That was a major lift for us.”

Cooper got two runs in the fifth to make it a 7-3 game. Kam Gray got a one-out single and took third on an error. Jaden Smith was hit by a pitch. Gray scored on Austin Cummins grounder to third, beating the throw home. After Jace Crawford walked, loading the bases, Smith scored when Ibarra reached on catcher’s interference.

Borho doubled in two runs in the bottom of the inning for his second and third RBIs of the night. Regala (walk) and Long (hit by a pitch) had both reached with two outs.

The Coogs got their final run as Cummins walked and scored on Castillo’s fielder’s choice.

Big innings doom Coogs

Wylie’s two big innings in the second and third doomed the Coogs, who couldn’t answer with their bats. They left nine runners stranded – six in scoring position.

“Honestly, that’s been the story of our year,” Cooper coach Brandon Stover said. “We play well at times, and then we have that inning or two that bites us. On the other end, we can’t get that inning. We had chances to get back in it, couldn’t get that hit. That’s baseball. That’s part of it.

“We’ve got to do a better job of just eliminating that big inning and making the plays we need to make, tough plays, but plays we’ve got to make to minimize.”

Wylie left seven runners stranded, including six in scoring position. The Bulldogs had two runners on with one out in the fourth and runners at second and third with no outs in the seventh but came up empty each inning.

“We had two innings that stalled out,” Martin said. “We’ve got to be better than that. When we’ve got guys in scoring position like that that are that close, we’ve got to find a way to get them in.”

Martin said when his team hit the ball in the gap, on a line or on the ground, good things happened. He didn’t like the pop ups in key situations in the fourth and seventh.

“Other than that, I was pleased – pleased with the effort,” Martin said. “I thought the kids played really hard, and the main thing is to get a win tonight.”

Clark bounces back in start

Clark, Wylie’s starting pitcher, got the win. He allowed three runs on three hits in 4⅔ innings. He struck out three, walked one and hit three.

It was far better than his previous start, when he gave up three runs on two hits and three walks in an inning at Abilene High.

“I thought he did a great job,” Martin said. “I thought he had a great approach. We’ve just got to clean up some stuff. He knows that better than anyone. … He’s a competitor. I think each and every time he goes out there, he’s thrown a lot of innings for us. We have a lot of trust in him.”

Paden Johnson allowed a hit and struck out three in 1⅓ innings of relief. Beard finished the game, giving up a run without a hit. He struck out two and walked one.

Ibarra took the loss, surrendering seven runs on nine hits. He struck out three in three innings. Castillo worked the final three innings, getting touched for two runs on four hits. He struck out two and walked two.

It was another tough loss for the Coogs, who have hung tough in some close games that didn’t go their way.

“They’ve competed all year, and I’m proud of them for that,” Stover said. “We are a young group. Even if we’re not young in age, we’re young in experience on the varsity level. … When things go against you quite a bit, it’s easy to just (say) ‘Ah’ and give up. Our kids haven’t. They’ve continued to compete and continued to go out there. It hasn’t been perfect, but we need to keep pushing forward and build on what we’re trying to do in our program.”

The stretch for the playoffs

Wylie plays at Monterey on Friday and hosts Lubbock High on Saturday before starting the final week of district play next week. The Bulldogs finish at Coronado (Tuesday) and home against Lubbock-Cooper (April 28).

They could win the district title or miss the playoffs with five teams all within a game of each other in the loss column.

“It’s pretty crazy man,” Martin said. “… Our goals are still in front of us. We know it’s going to be a dogfight. We have some tough games ahead of us, but I think our kids are up for the challenge.”

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Abilene Wylie stymies Abilene Cooper in District 4-5A baseball game