Hounds hold off Hawks as Merrell recognized for 650th career win

Boerne High jumped out to a big lead over Canyon Lake and then held off a late charge by the Hawks in a district baseball contest on Tuesday.

The Hounds defeated Canyon Lake 7-5 after they were up 6-0 at one point. A win is a win and BHS improves to 23-2 overall and 5-0 in district. They visited Canyon Lake on Thursday to close out the series.

After the game, Boerne coach Bill Merrell was honored for his 650th career win. Merrell actually reached the milestone last week against Davenport but they held the ceremony until Tuesday.

In Tuesday’s tussle, Boerne scored two runs in each of the first three innings for the 6-0 lead but the Hawks cut it in half with three runs in the top of the fourth to make it 6-3.

BHS answered with a single run in the bottom of the fourth and it was 7-3, but the Hawks scratched for 2 more runs in the top of the sixth and the Boerne lead was trimmed to 7-5 with two outs.

Landon Lestourgeon was on the mound for the Hounds and struck out the next batter to end the inning. After Boerne didn’t score in the bottom of the sixth, it went to the seventh and the Hawks never really threatened.

Kalob Sanchez pitched in the final frame and got the first batter to fly out to left and the second to ground out to first for two quick outs. The next batter reached on an error but Sanchez struck out the next batter to end it.

BHS finished with 9 hits including a triple from Sanchez, who also singled and scored twice, while Rashawn Galloway hit 3 singles, picked up 2 RBI and scored a run and Cam Johnson singled.

Hutson Hendrix took a walk; Dylan Perez drove in 2 runs and scored once; Andrew Poole singled; Tyler Garritano singled and pushed in a run; Connor Shill singled and scored, while Max Garcia and Jaxon Baize both crossed home plate once.

Xander Cloudy started and went 5 innings to pick up the win after he gave up 5 hits, 3 runs and fanned 5. Lestourgeon tossed an inning and yielded 3 hits, 2 runs, sat down 2 and walked 1, while Sanchez earned the save and surrendered a hit, no runs or walks and struck out a batter.