The Llano baseball Yellow Jackets can score runs as fast as the Dallas Mavericks can make vacation plans, so the Jackets will continue their playoff march following the destruction of the Luling Eagles in the bidistrict round, May 2 and May 3. Llano won the best of three series, 17-6 and 18-8. Oh, mercy.
“Our offense is consistent,” head coach Chad Krempin said, “and we’ve had a tendency to be front runners; one reason is our power numbers have increased.” Coach K’s crowd reached double figures in three routs of Wimberley; they tormented Ingram for 13, 14 and 17 runs, and put a nine, twice, on Bandera, which otherwise registered seven shutouts in the district schedule.
On Friday night, May 2, at Leander, Llano posted seven runs in the second inning against Luling. Five walks and a hit batsman were a major help, and Travis Ramos, Ty Thurman, A.C. Pippenger, and Trey Brooks had singles; 12 men went to the plate, and this marathon of more than three hours was pretty much decided.
Four more runs followed in the third inning, and three came home in the fifth. A Slatter Lackey base hit was complimented by doubles by Estevan Aviles, Lance Dickey and Ramos.
“We can score as many runs as we need,” Krempin contends. “We know we can never give up.” With such encouragement, the Jackets tacked on three in the sixth inning; Dustin Jordan, who owns a monster batting average of close to .470, ended Game One with a base hit which drove in two and made the (unmerciful) lead, 11.
Everyone said good night, went home, went straight to bed and reported back to the Lions’ diamond at 1 p.m., May 3.
Jacket arms were so weary, they punched out only five hits in the first inning. Brooks, Thurman and Ramos had singles, and Dallas Redden slammed a two-run double to left centerfield. Ten men batted, six scored, and Eagles’ lefty, Trey Bush, saw his approval rating sink below his cleats as he finished the inning in right.
This contest was done--well, humor the publisher and read another paragraph or two. “You can’t take anyone lightly,” designated-hitter Walker Woolman told reporters, “because anyone can come back, and we relaxed a little bit.”
The Eagles didn’t. After a Ramos fly ball went back, back, back and over the fence in left, and Llano led, 8-1, in the middle of the second inning, Luling found it had a seven-run frame in its garment bag, and the game was tied, 8-8.
Oh, my goodness! Could it happen again? Could the Jackets, who wasted an 11-2 lead in Ingram, April 8, and a 7-0 advantage in Bandera, April 22, see this 7-Up evaporate--in the postseason, for crying out loud?
“It crosses your mind,” Krempin could say with a smile as the concession stand was closing. “I didn’t really fear their pitchers, though, and Nathan Dudley did a great job.” Which is like saying photographs of Miley Cyrus are a bigger deal than whose face will be on the 42-cent stamp.
Dudley, the senior lefthander, became the third Jacket pitcher when he relieved with a man in scoring position and two outs in the second--the greatest inning in Luling baseball history. Red turned Brady Weaver red with a strikeout. This put an end to a frame that had a longer life than Roger Clemens controversies.
“You’ve got to come in and do your job,” Dudley related. “You’ve got to throw strikes. Yes, it was a little nerve-racking.” It was much worse for his foes; the young man who graduates in a few weeks put a cap and gown on the opposing bats, striking out eight and giving up just three hits in five and a third innings. It was absolutely masterful, very possibly Dudley’s Moment in Time in his superb athletic career for the Black and Orange. With Nathan on the mound, the Eagles’ scoring ended for 2008.
There was a small matter of the Jackets getting a couple of runs, and that proved to be no problem. Lance Dickey, who was on base four times, wasn’t on very long in the fourth as he hit Weaver’s first pitch over the fence in left center.
“That ball was drilled! It must have gone 425 feet,” Krempin exclaimed. “I think it had stewardesses on it.” (Why can’t I think of lines like that?) “That got the team fired up.”
Then what did Woolman’s blast do to his teammates? Make them think they were Iron Men? Two walks followed the Dickey home run, and Walker crushed a Weaver offering for a three-run homer. “I was kind of excited,” Woolman mentioned, “because all I wanted to do was put the ball in play." His first of the year? “My first ever!”
Thurman, who had an RBI single in the first inning, drove in two in a three-run sixth, and Dudley doubled home one in the seventh. Lackey also had an RBI in that stanza, and, alas, 18 was enough. That’s probably close to a school record for a playoff game, and the 35 runs gathered in Leander (in 13 innings!) may be a new standard for a two-game series.
Hey, We can play Defense, too! With a man on and one out in the third, Reagan Friedrich made an excellent play on a ground ball hit to third by James Holcomb. The throw to Jordan beat Holcomb to first.
In the sixth, Holcomb led off with a single, but Pippenger, at second, made a brilliant grab of a line drive by Bush. A.C. went to his left and found the ball and then the dirt before the ball found rightfield. A potential rally was squeezed in Pipp’s glove.
Next up is Devine, May 8 and 9 at 7 p.m., and Saturday, May 10, at 1 p.m., if necessary, in the best-of-three, area-round series at New Braunfels High. Krempin says: “They are a scrappy bunch, and they play good defense, but they’re not overpowering. We’re going to score some runs.”
It’s that time of the campaign when the seniors, especially, don’t want to see the last out. “That gives us more drive,” Dudley observes. “You keep fighting so it’s not your last game; you know it'll happen some time, but you battle so you put it off as long as possible.”