The Llano baseball Jackets’ two losses to Pleasanton in the region quarterfinals were anything but pleasant, but they cannot diminish an excellent season--20 wins and triumphs in the bidistrict and area rounds. The end came against a talented Eagles’ squad.

May 15-

Pleasanton 13, Llano 4

This one was much closer than the score indicates, and don't make any faces until you’ve read past the foreword.

The Eagles scored three times in the first inning at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. They touched Nathan Dudley for just two singles; but three walks, an error and a passed ball got things off to a nasty start.

“They were tough outs,” Llano head coach Chad Krempin conceded about the opposition. “We played hard, but we could not get the timely hits.”

And that’s your headline for Game One. The Jackets put two men on with one out in the second inning, but stranded both at second and third. One inning later, the first two batters reached safely, but the bases were loaded when the final out was made, and the score remained, 3-0.

Pleasanton, which owns a team batting average of .350, got one more run in its half of the fourth on a scorching triple to left center field by Phillip Pawelek. It was his 30th RBI of the season. “Oh, they had good sticks,” Dudley admitted.

A.C. Pippenger put his initials into the fray in the Jackets’ fourth. He ripped a two-run single to right center. Walker Woolman and Ty Thurman scored. Woolman had led off with a base on balls, and Dean Redden produced his third double in three games. Thurman ran for the freshman catcher.

A walk and sacrifice followed and Lance Dickey, hitting .390, came to the plate with the tying runs at second and third. He slapped a shot toward left, but third baseman Matt Fox gloved the line drive, and now seven men in Black and Orange had been stranded in three innings.

“We kept fighting back like we’ve done all season,” Krempin told reporters. “We didn’t play our best against Pleasanton, but we made strides throughout the spring; I’m excited about next year.”

Back at St. Mary’s, the Eagles’ Michael Barrow singled in a run in the fifth, but Jackets’ shortstop Travis Ramos answered that with a home run over the fence in left. My goodness, shouldn’t he be fun to watch for three more years!

“The glass is half empty” response to Ramos’ blast was it led off the inning--those men-left-on in previous paragraphs were NOW in the dugout instead of preceding Travis to home plate. In fact, one out after the homer, Dustin “we’re going to miss you plenty” Jordan walked and Woolman singled. Relief pitcher Boone Mokry, who had entered the game in the fourth inning, did not allow those runners to score as he struck out the last two batters.

Pleasanton added three runs in the sixth, while Jordan collected his team-leading 35th RBI of the season to end Llano’s offense in that frame. Yes, two more men were left on making a total of 11 between the second and sixth innings. The Eagles wiped out all suspense with a wicked five runs in the seventh. Game One was done.

May 16--Pleasanton 11, Llano 2

Ty Compton got the ball for this “must-win” contest in Fredericksburg. He gave up just one run in four innings, but Pawelek slammed a three-run home run a lace or two over Dickey’s glove in left in the fifth, and this was the ESPN highlight of a seven-run inning. Johnny Garcia, who had gone 0-for-5 in the first game, doubled home two in the fifth, and he returned to smash a two-bagger which scored three more in the sixth.

After the final out, and the Eagles in green were celebrating their 25th win of the season, seniors like Dickey and Dudley began collecting their gear for the last time in a Llano uniform.

“We did our best; we gave it our all,” Lance told his interviewers. His “all,” indeed: football, basketball and baseball--middle school through high school.

“It was a great season, and this is a great bunch of guys,” Nathan said as the dugout emptied of players and equipment. “Every day it was fun to come to practice and be with my teammates and friends. You know the last game is coming, but when it does it hits you hard.”

The rest of the Senior Class: Regmund, Thurman, Jordan, Pippenger, Slatter Lackey, and Cody Fietz. “This last year was the best of our lives, I thought,” Fietz contended, “but it’s time to move on to bigger and better things.”

Final Words from the coach: “I told the guys they can be real proud of coming back from a bad start, five or six games below .500, to almost winning the district championship to four victories in the postseason to 20 wins overall.

“I’m excited about the ones returning, but I’ll really miss those who are graduating; that’s the toughest thing every year about my job--saying goodbye to young men who’ve worked so hard for you and who have shown so much talent and effort.”