Hendrickson drops Game 1 of area-round baseball series; McCallum out; Westlake wins
PFLUGERVILLE — Hendrickson’s season isn’t over, but the Hawks’ margin for error is down to zero.
Brenham scored three times in the final two innings Thursday and claimed a 5-4 win in the first game of a Class 5A area-round series at Hendrickson High School to put the Hawks in a win-or-go-home scenario for Game 2 of the series Friday in Brenham.
“We now get to try and do what they did to us tonight on their home field,” longtime Hendrickson coach Doug Pearce said. “That’s got to be the motivation, because you want to keep playing to get to the third game at the neutral site. Sometimes the team that wins the second game has the momentum going into the third.”
More: High school baseball update: Connor Priddy powers Lago Vista; Cedar Ridge rolls
The Hawks' defense hampered their efforts as errors led to the Bears scoring once in the sixth and twice in the seventh, turning a 3-2 Hendrickson lead into a 5-3 deficit.
Jayden Rodriguez circled the bases on a throwing error by Brenham’s catcher on a dropped third strike to get a run back for the Hawks in their half of the seventh, but Bears pitcher Cayden Shields finished off his complete-game win by retiring the next batter.
Hendrickson (21-8) couldn’t take advantage of a great effort on the mound by Jaden Bahl, who scattered five hits and struck out six in 6 2/3 innings.
The good news going into Friday for the Hawks was that they would have every pitcher available except for Bahl, since Rodriguez threw only 15 pitches in relief.
“We have some guys who have thrown a lot of innings for us,” Pearce said. “Strike-throwing is the key. That’s what we’ve been struggling with at times this year. We just have to stay within ourselves and not try to do too much like we did on defense today where we were throwing the ball around — that didn’t help us.”
Shields’ RBI double gave Brenham (22-10-1) a brief 1-0 lead in the second before D.J. Pinkerton’s two-run single in the bottom half of the inning and a Bears error leading to another run put Hendrickson ahead 3-1.
Mason Lampe’s sacrifice fly in the third brought Brenham within 3-2.
Ethan Jezierski singled and eventually scored on a throwing error to tie that game at 3-3 in the sixth, and Rylan Wooten’s single, two walks and an error gave the Bears their two seventh-inning runs.
Pearce said going on the road might actually be a good thing for his squad.
“At home, there’s a lot of distractions and more people in the stands that you know during the game,” he said. “We’ve had a lot going on recently, so it may be good to get away.”
If Hendrickson can force a Game 3, it would be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Caldwell High School.
McCallum eliminated; Westlake wins Game 1
In other playoff action, Westlake took a 1-0 lead over Smithson Valley when Major Ritchie hammered a walk-off RBI double in extra innings to give the Chaps a 3-2 win in a Class 6A series. Lake Travis also took a 1-0 lead in a 6A series with a 5-0 win over San Antonio Johnson.
Cedar Ridge and Westwood both fell behind in their 6A series. San Antonio Clark beat Westwood 3-2 while San Antonio Reagan topped Cedar Ridge 19-3.
In Class 5A, McCallum's season ended with 6-1 loss to Montgomery Lake Creek in a one-game playoff in the second round. The school announced that head coach Brandon Grant has resigned. Also Thursday, Anderson took a 1-0 series lead over College Station with a 6-5 win while Cedar Park took a 1-0 lead over Eagle Pass Winn with a 4-0 victory.
In Class 4A, Giddings dropped the first game of its series against Carthage 8-1 while Taylor won its series opener over China Spring 2-1. Blanco won the first game of its series against Tidehaven 4-0 in Class 3A while Thorndale won its series opener 5-1 against Burton in 2A.
Expanded coverage
For stories and photo galleries out of Thursday's and Friday's baseball and softball games, go to statesman.com/sports.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Brenham beats Hendrickson in game 1 of baseball playoffs
