Wimberley High School’s Coach Stephen Wisdom and his Texan baseball team went into last week needing a win versus Boerne High School or a Fredericksburg High School loss in either of their games against Davenport High School.
Last Tuesday, April 25, saw the Texans make the trip to Boerne to play the first game against the district leading Greyhounds. Chase Carson took to the mound for Wimberley, facing a team that scored 14 against them in their first matchup.
Carson got on base in the top of the first with a single to left field but was unable to advance before the third out. Carson walked the first batter in the bottom of the first and was up 1-2 in the count when the second Boerne batter hit a home run over the left field wall to give the home team a 2-0 lead.
The score remained the same until the bottom of the third. Ty Thames relieved Carson on the bump and struck out the first batter he faced. The second batter walked, then stole second and took third on a wild pitch. Thames struck out the batter but threw a wild pitch to the next batter, allowing the runner to score to go up 3-0. Finn Mignerey came in to pitch two batters later, getting the third out and sending the game to the top of the fourth.
Neither team scored until the top of the sixth. Mignerey doubled to lead off the inning then moved to third on a fielder’s choice by Cody Overall. On the next pitch, Zach Patek hit a hard grounder to shortstop who threw to first for the putout, allowing Mignerey to score.
The Texan defense stood strong behind Mignerey for the remainder of the game, not allowing the Greyhounds to score. Unfortunately, the Texan offense was unable to mount a comeback, losing the contest 3-1.
“We’ve got a discipline problem at the plate. We’re not sitting back and waiting on our pitches,” Wisdom said. “We need to force them to throw strikes and we’re just getting anxious.”
In the meantime, Davenport dropped Fredericksburg 9-4, securing the Texan playoff position as the fourth seed, making Friday’s matchup in Wimberley of no significance in the standings.
The game began at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 28 and lasted through the first three innings and the first batter in the top of the fourth, taking 56 minutes to play. Weather interceded as a big front moved in from the west, bringing lightning and heavy rain for a three hour and four minute delay.
Trent Habbit was the starting pitcher for Wimberley, issuing a walk and a batter hit by pitch in the first inning, leading to a Greyhound score on a sacrifice fly. Boerne led 1-0 going into the top of the third.
Michael Brister came in to pitch in the top of the third, surrendering a walk to the first batter he faced. The runner would score on the next pitch as a double was stroked hard on a line drive to left field to make the score 2-0. Two batters later, a second double would score the base runner before the Texan defense could record the third out. Boerne led 3-0 going to the bottom of the third.
The Texans had left the bases loaded in the first inning without a score. The bottom frame of the third saw the Texans get a single from leadoff batter Zach Patek then a double two batters later from Carson on a line drive to center field. With runners at second and third, Habbit would hit into a Fielder’s Choice, scoring Zach Patek and getting the force out of Habbit at first base for out number two. Lane Patek was intentionally walked, and Owen O’Neal earned a walk on five pitches on the next at bat. The Texans had the bases loaded when Thames slapped a 1-1 pitch at the shortstop, scoring Carson and Lane Patek, knotting the contest up at 3-3.
After a Greyhound double to start the fourth, the weather delay began. When the teams came back out to start play at 8 p.m., the score was tied, and Boerne had a man at second base. Wyatt Martinez came in to pitch. The Greyhounds began to play small ball — advancing runners through bunts and sacrifice flies — to produce a run in the top of the fourth. The score was 4-3 Boerne headed into the bottom of the fourth, and they would add another run in the top of the fifth to lead 5-3.
The Texans had no offensive threat until the bottom of the seventh when they were again able to load the bases. Once again, Wimberley ran out of outs before pushing any runs across, leaving the runners stranded and finishing the district season with a loss, 5-3.
Wisdom had praise for his pitchers and defense.
“We’ve asked the pitchers to throw strikes and trust their fielders,” he said. “They’ve bought in and we held a top 10 team in the state to eight runs over two games. We just aren’t producing runs to help them. To play them tight like we did tonight shows we have the ability. We need to take advantage of it by being disciplined and scoring runs.”
The Texans (10-13-2 overall, 6-9 district) play Geronimo Navarro High School (21-7 overall, 8-2 district) on May 4 at 6 p.m. in a one game playoff at Texan Field.
