The pitching was absolutely superb; the defense had Kodak moments (Do they still SAY that?); and the offense didn’t strike often, but when it did, a Llano Yellow Jacket rout was in progress.

All of the aforementioned produced the harmony which resulted in an authoritative, two-game sweep of Devine in the area round of the Class 3A baseball playoffs at New Braunfels High.

May 8--Jackets Win, 9-1

Nathan Dudley, who pitched the last five and a third innings against Luling in bidistrict, when we last talked, couldn’t come up with anything original, so his effort against the Warhorses was similar and sensational. He went five-plus innings, giving up one run on two hits, and he struck out seven.

“His fast ball was sneaky fast,” head coach Chad Krempin said about the senior lefty, “and his curve balls kept them off balance. I’m real proud of him.”

No one was too proud of how the aluminum was being used. You would have thought it was more valuable than oil considering the light touch being applied by Llano batters. That sensitivity ended in the fifth inning.

Ty Thuman opened with a single, just the second hit of the game for his team. Freshman catcher Dean Redden followed with a big double to left field. Trey Brooks walked, and that brought up Cody Fietz.

“I was a little tired,” Fietz admitted. He had been battling a throat infection for a week. “I just wanted to put the ball in play.” Oh, did he ever--down the line in right, the fly ball fell fair for a triple. Three runs scored, and Cody completed his 270-foot journey. How far would he have hit the ball, or how far would he have run if he’d been healthy?

Lance Dickey then drew a base on balls, and Devine pitcher Christian Pompa thought he'd throw to first base with Travis Ramos at the plate. The problem was Pompa loaded but didn’t fire; it was a classic balk, and Fietz was allowed to stroll home.

Ramos, the promising freshman shortstop, then belted a double to right center, and Dickey scored to make it a 5-1 game. Travis stole third and scored on an excellent, suicide-squeeze bunt by Dallas Redden. A Warhorse error meant Llano had rolled a seven in the inning.

“I knew we’d score some runs,” Krempin said with justifiable confidence. The Jackets are averaging close to nine a game in 34 contests this year, and they’ve touched home 50 times in just 26 innings of batting in four postseason games.

So, Dudley walks the first two Devine hitters in the sixth inning, and he's relieved. Nathan the Red had pitched 10 and a third innings against Luling and the ‘Horses’ in back-to-back appearances; he had given up one run on five hits, and he had fanned 15.

Logan Davis comes in for Dudley and follows his latest lead: he walks the bases loaded. Drum roll please; he proceeds to strike out Lane Frazier, Josh Guajardo and Joseph Parrish. Davis opens the seventh by getting Pompey and Lucas Allen on strikes--five in a row for a youngster who, because of injuries, hadn’t had a lot of work this year.

The New York Giants’ Carl Hubbell struck out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin in succession in the 1934 All-Star Game. Hubbell and the fivesome all made it to the Hall of Fame.

Dudley and Davis combined on a two-hitter, and Llano had a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three playoff.

May 9--Jackets Win, 6-0

Ty Compton got the ball for Game Two, and he was Elliot Ness: Untouchable. The junior righthander hurled a two-hitter and struck out seven. He escaped trouble with two men on in the third and fourth innings.

He claimed his ninth victory of the season against two losses, and, yes, pitchers in Black and Orange had allowed the Warhorses a double and three singles in two games.

“I was hitting my spots, and I had great defense behind me,” Compton declared. Krempin wasn’t smiling about the five walks Ty yielded. “He’d come out to the mound and tell me to throw strikes,” Compton confided to a reporter, “but that only put more pressure me.”

“I said he stepped up,” Krempin praised, “and I said he was too much for those guys, but.....he walked too many.” (You got the feeling Coach K wasn’t real unhappy with his guy’s showing.) Ty’s battery mate, Redden, gets the last word: “I knew in warmups he’d dominate.”

Reagan Friedrich, a dandy third baseman, was hit by a pitch to open the second inning. A.C. Pippenger sacrificed him to second, and Dean Redden collected his second double of the series to make it, 1-0.

Brooks singled, and Fietz, feeling better with every at-bat, ripped another two bagger, and it was, 3-0, as Brooks and Wes Regmund raced home. Fietz had five runs batted in in the series.

Devine, hoping things would go better outdoors after losing to Llano, 40-6, in the Alamodome in November, was Done.

“It’s fun to play on the same team with these guys,” Brooks, a veteran of two baseball campaigns, pointed out, concerning his teammates, “and we want this season to keep going.”

Walker Woolman began the sixth inning with a double; Slatter Lackey singled and Redden proved he could also hit something besides a double, and his single drove in a run. Two errors and a Dickey base hit made it, 6-0, and the offense went to the showers.

Defend On Us: Brooks made a great grab of a fly ball to deep center in the first game, and he traveled all the way to right, behind the infield, to catch a dangerous bloop in the second meeting. Pippenger snatched a line drive off the ground near second base in the second frame of Game Two. Robert Martinez hit that ball, and he bounced into a double play in the sixth inning as Ramos gloved the ball at short, stepped on second for one and threw to Dustin Jordan at first for the DP. (Jordan was on base five times in the sweep.)

Pleasanton is next in the region quarterfinals. They play at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio at 7 p.m., Thursday, May 15; same time, Friday, at Fredericksburg; and 1 p.m., Saturday, back at St. Mary’s, if necessary. The Eagles (“We’ll be ready for them,” Fietz assures his listener) are 23-7 while Llano is 20-14.

“We’ve set a goal to play for a while,” Krempin maintains, “and the area round was not the one we planned on losing. The guys are still ‘all business.’”