JOURDANTON – Usually it’s the head coach that gets doused in Gatorade or water after a big win, but that privilege was reserved for one of the Boerne High baseball players last Friday night.
With BHS and Rockport-Fulton tied at 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning, junior Riley Pechacek ended the series with the Pirates and sent the Hounds into the next round with a walkoff home run.
It took a few tries for his teammates to finally catch the speedster, but once they did, Pechacek had a bucket of water dumped on him, which he said didn’t seem quite fair.
“It was a good team effort,” he said, “I believe everyone should have been dumped on right then.”
Pechacek’s homer closed out the series with the Pirates after BHS took the first game, 14-1, on Thursday for the sweep.
Now the Greyhounds face Calallen in the fourth round. Game 1 is Thursday at Coastal Bend College in Beeville, 7 p.m. Game 2 is Saturday at Northeast Sports Park in San Antonio, 4 p.m. A third game will follow if needed after the second game.
Pechacek had struck out twice and singled on Friday before his at bat in the eighth, but he was seeing Pirates pitcher Carsen Flores for the fourth time in the game at that point and had figured him out.
Pechacek said he was sitting on a breaking ball and that’s what he got.
“I believe it was a curve ball, he had been throwing me off-speed all game and I was expecting it,” he said. “It feels amazing, it’s unreal.”
Coach Bill Merrell said he knew it was gone once it left Pechacek’s bat.
“It was a big-time hit, when he hit it as high as it got, as quick as it got, I knew it was gone,” the coach said. “It was a smash.”
The walk-off homer capped an impressive comeback in Friday’s game, especially since the Greyhounds fell behind 3-0 in the first inning. Boerne didn’t allow another run over the next seven innings and climbed back into it one run at a time. The Hounds were clutch with a single run in the bottom of the seventh to tie it and again in the eighth to win it.
“I was proud of them because they didn’t panic,” Merrell said. “They stayed with it.”
Tyler Garritano scored Boerne’s first run in the second when he tripled and scored on a Dylan Perez RBI single to make it 3-1.
Hutson Hendrix started things off in the fifth after he was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a Connor Shill sac bunt. Kalob Sanchez doubled and Hendrix’s courtesy runner, Brooks Perez, made it home from second and it was 3-2.
In the bottom of the seventh, Dylan Perez came through with another big hit and doubled to start the inning. The next batter struck out but then Shill came up and laid down another nice bunt.
Perez moved to third on the bunt and once the throw went to first, Perez rounded third and just kept going. After Shill was safe at first, the Pirates threw back to home to try and get Perez and there was a play at the plate but Perez was safe and it was tied at 3-3.
“He read it the whole way, when he got to me (at third base) they were in the process of throwing the ball (to first),” Merrell said. “That’s just a great read on his part, that’s a smart baseball play.”
After Dylan Perez tied it there was only one out in the inning but the Hounds left Shill stranded at second, something they did in four straight frames. From the fourth through the seventh, Boerne stranded a runner at second but it didn’t matter in the end because Pechacek ended it in the eighth. Xander Cloudy started on the hill and gave up three runs before being replaced in the first by Landon LeStourgeon who went 4.1 innings and threw 51 pitches. Kalob Sanchez entered in the sixth and finished it out. He was the winning pitcher and tossed 57 pitches. Boerne’s defense turned a
Boerne’s defense turned a huge double play in the seventh after the Pirates loaded the bases with one out, but the 5-4-3 putout ended the threat.
Pechacek said it doesn’t matter who’s on the mound for the Hounds, it doesn’t change what they do defensively.
“We know our defense is good and we knew we had the capability of coming back,” he said. “We knew we had to keep working because the game’s not over until it’s over.”
Game 1
BHS blew out the Pirates in the opener, 14-1, behind 14 hits.
Rockport-Fulton pitcher Luke Muirhead entered the contest with a 0.82 ERA and had only given up 6 earned runs all year, but the Hounds scored 5 runs in the first frame against him.
Dylan Perez hit a bases-clearing triple in the first to help score 3 of the 5 runs.
BHS plated 4 more in the fourth – all against Muirhead – and then scored 5 in the fifth after sending 11 batters to the plate to take the 14-0 lead.
Rockport-Fulton recorded its lone run in the bottom of the fifth, but it wasn’t enough to stop the mercy rule from kicking in.
Andrew Poole won the game on an efficient 67 pitches and gave up 4 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and fanned 4.
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