By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com
STEPHENVILLE (March 17, 2017) — It’s difficult to beat Midlothian Heritage on the high school baseball diamond without miscues.
With them, it’s an especially tall task and one that Stephenville couldn’t overcome in a 9-1 loss Friday at James T. Young Baseball Field.
Heritage overcame Stephenville’s early 1-0 lead with three unearned runs in a four-run top of the third to take control in the 8-4A tilt that left the Yellow Jackets with records of 11-3-2 overall and 1-1 in district. They visit Alvarado at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The early going was all about Stephenville highlights, including gunning down a Heritage runner at home to end the top of the first. With a runner at second and a single into left field, it appeared Heritage would put the first run on the board. But Chase Carrillo and Clay Krause had other plans, with Carrillo fielding the ball cleanly and hitting Krause with a perfect cutoff throw so the third baseman could relay on to catcher Trevor Easter in plenty of time for him to secure the ball and tag out the runner.
The momentum of the big play carried over to the Jackets’ first at bat, and it was once again Easter who delivered. Caleb Gibbons had singled deep in the hole at shortstop before courtesy runner Kade Averhoff stole second, putting him into position to score easily on Easter’s single to left that made it 1-0 Jackets.
Gibbons started on the hill for Stephenville and worked out one out and two-out jams in the first two innings, using two strikeouts to safely navigate a pair of two-out singles in the top of the second. The Jackets had a chance to add to their lead in the bottom of the inning, but Aaron Abila, who had singled to right and moved to second on a ground out by Seth Heupel, tried to score on a Luke Bullard single to enter but was gunned down at home.
The top of the third was when things began to unravel for Stephenville.
A single, a bunt single and a throwaway by the Jackets in an attempt to pick off a runner put runners on the corners before an intentional walk loaded the bases. A fielder’s choice generated no outs and yielded the first Jaguar run because of an error, then a single to right plus an error fielding the sharp hit allowed two more runs to come home for a 3-1 Heritage lead. The Jaguars tacked on one more when a failed bunt attempt on a suicide squeeze left a runner dead to rights for Easter to tag out at the plate, but his throw to third to try for an ending-inning double play got away into left field and allowed the trailing runner to score. There was another single to third and an error that allowed the runner to move to second before Gibbons recorded a strikeout – his fourth of the first three innings – to retire the side.
But it never got better for Stephenville, which went down in order in the bottom of the third, fourth and fifth innings before loading the bases only to come up empty in the sixth. Heritage, meanwhile, went to work pulling away with a run in the fourth and another in the fifth. Gibbons left after the fifth with Stephenville trailing 6-1, but only two of the runs he allowed were earned. Caleb Smith kept the Jaguars off the board in the sixth before they scored three times in the top of the seventh.
Derek Gifford, Gibbons, Easter, Abila and Luke Bullard had the only hits for the Jackets – five singles – against Heritage ace Jared Boisvert, who tossed a complete game with seven strikeouts, and just one walk. Rob McKelvey was 2-for-2 with two walks and three runs scored while Brayton McDaniel and Laramie Sayles were each 2-for-4 with an RBI.
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