Mansfield Legacy baseball regains form to oust Lubbock-Cooper in regional semifinal Game 3
ABILENE — Saturday was a war of attrition in every sense.
On a hot, windy afternoon at Walt Driggers Field, Lubbock-Cooper and Mansfield Legacy played more than five hours of baseball.
The Broncos proved to have the pitching depth and timely hitting to prevail.
After Jude Cook tossed a shutout in the Pirates' 4-0 win in Game 2, Legacy rebounded to take the Region I-5A semifinal series with an 11-6 victory.
The Broncos will face Aledo in the regional final.
It looked early on like Lubbock-Cooper (30-9) would complete a series comeback for the second week in a row. The Pirates led 2-0 through two innings in the finale, knocking Legacy starter Kayden Voelkel for five hits.
Then the Broncos' bats got going.
Legacy scored its first runs of the day in the third inning — four, to be exact — which brought new life to its dugout.
"(Cook) did a great job," Broncos coach Chris McMullen said of the Game 2 winner. "To get the four-spot, it gave us a shot of energy. (It's) a hot day, second game of a doubleheader, so, man, there was no doubt that four-spot kind of woke us up."
Cooper's offense stayed sharp, with Timothy Haynes leading off the next at-bat with a double. He came around to score following consecutive infield errors. Voelkel retired the next two Pirates before walking his final batter.
In stepped Parker Ibrahimi. The Broncos reliever walked in a run to tie the game, but he was rock solid from there. Ibrahimi earned the win, allowing two runs on five hits over 4⅓ innings.
It was especially impressive to his coach after Ibrahimi's two games at shortstop prior to the outing.
"He's been doing it all year for us," McMullen said. "He was our go-to guy out of the pen, so he's been kind of prepping for this kind of role. … We knew he's got fight in him. That's why he's the guy we go to in those kind of situations."
Legacy scored seven unanswered for an 11-4 advantage heading into the seventh inning. The haymaker was a five-run sixth that saw two pitching changes by Cooper.
Cook was impressive in Game 2, scattering four hits with seven strikeouts and three walks in a complete game. But the Broncos got to the Pirates' bullpen, which walked seven in four innings of Game 3. Two of those scored runs, including a third consecutive base on balls that made it 7-4 with no outs in the sixth.
Given King greeted Cooper's fourth pitcher, Damian Pantoya, with a three-run double.
"They're definitely a team that can score multiple runs in an inning," Pirates coach Brad Wuensche said. "Whenever they get hot, they get hot. Jude did a good job in (Game 2) of keeping them off-balance and not letting them get hot. They kind of caught fire right there in the third inning. … It kind of snowballed on us just a little bit."
Still, Wuensche said he couldn't be more proud of the fight to even be in a Game 3 situation. It was representative of the team and the seniors, who leave the program after consecutive undefeated district championships.
"This group of seniors, it speaks for itself," Wuensche said. "They have back-to-back 30-win seasons. They went a perfect 30-0 in district play. Today isn't indicative of what they are and what they were to this program. They brought this program back a little bit. They showed up every single day for the past two years. It doesn't feel like I've worked a day in my life. …
"Their fight is everything that you want in a baseball team."
Kyler Jordan showed that spirit down to the end. The Cooper first baseman, who will go on to play football at Baylor, launched a home run to left field with two outs in the seventh.
It was a melancholy trot around the bases given the score, but it's one of his final memories with the Pirates.
"I really wish that (the series) would've ended up different, but God's plan is always bigger," Jordan said. "… It's a little painful right now, but it's on to bigger, better things. … Nothing can take away the memories that I've made over the years with these guys. I love each and every one of them to death."
REGION I-5A SEMIFINALS
GAME 2
Lubbock-Cooper 4, Mansfield Legacy 0
Lubbock-Cooper 120 010 0 — 4 7 0
Mansfield Legacy 000 000 0 — 0 4 3
Jude Cook. Drake Dowd and Ethan Ramos (7). W — Cook. L — Dowd. 2B — Cooper, Kyler Jordan, Kylar Galmor.
GAME 3
Mansfield Legacy 11, Lubbock-Cooper 6
Mansfield Legacy 004 025 0 — 11 10 2
Lubbock-Cooper 022 000 2 — 6 11 2
Kayden Voelkel and Parker Ibrahimi (3). Will Qualia, Holt Gibson (4), Tyler Spruiell (6) and Damian Pantoya (6). W — Ibrahimi. L — Gibson. 2B — Legacy, Dylan Schlaegel, Given King. Cooper, Kyler Jordan (2), Timothy Haynes. HR — Cooper, Jordan.
Records: Lubbock-Cooper 30-9; Mansfield Legacy 30-8.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Mansfield Legacy baseball beats Lubbock-Cooper in regional semifinals
