MARION – Boerne High’s Game 1 against Cuero was hanging in the balance when Greyhound shortstop Cam Johnson came up with the hit of the series.
It was tied at 3-3 in the top of the seventh and the Hounds had two runners in scoring position when Johnson ripped a triple down the right-field line to bring in both runners and bump the Boerne lead to 5-3. Johnson later scored on a Hutson Hendrix safety squeeze and BHS was leading 6-3.
After that, Cuero didn’t score in the bottom of the seventh to give Boerne the win and then the Gobblers didn’t score in the next game as the Greyhounds closed it out Saturday with a 10-0 win as Johnson’s hit seemed to change the tone of the series.
Boerne improves to 28-4 and will play El Campo in the second round in a series that starts Thursday at 6 p.m. It continues on Saturday, 1 p.m., with a third game to follow if needed. All games will be played at Del Valle.
Johnson said he was just trying to do his part and bring in the runs. He added that the Cuero pitcher was throwing him a lot of fastballs that he kept fouling off until he got one that he liked. With two strikes, he fouled off three pitches before he laced his hit down the line.
“I was down 0-2 in the count and battling off some pitches at that point. I wasn’t going to strike out and anything close I was going to put a bat on, that’s all I was trying to do,” he said. “It looked like a fastball, but he caught too much of the plate and I made him pay. He was mostly throwing fastballs up, trying to get me to swing and miss and I was battling them off. I was waiting for that one I could put in play and make them pay. It felt good.”
Johnson brought in Walker Hill and Riley Pechacek to swing the momentum in Boerne’s direction.
BHS coach Bill Merrell said he expects that from Johnson, one of his senior leaders.
“He came up with a big play at a big time,” the coach said. “We never say die and that got the train running.”
Boerne finished with 7 hits in the game and except for the Johnson triple, the other hits were singles. Johnson did score 2 runs in the game and also reached in the sixth on a walk.
Brooks Perez and Pechacek both singled with Pechacek scoring in the seventh after reaching on an error. Hill hit 2 singles, drove in a run and scored in the seventh. Cale Blalock singled and scored, Jace Preston singled and drove in 2 runs, Hendrix picked up an RBI on his sac bunt and Caleb Cloutier scored a run.
Landon Lestourgeon went all 7 innings to get the win on 100 pitches. He gave up 3 hits and all 3 runs scored in the fourth by Cuero were all unearned after the Hounds committed 3 errors in the inning. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out 6.
Game 2
BHS pitcher Xander Cloudy was almost perfect on the mound to close out their series with Cuero. At one point, Cloudy retired 17 straight batters in Saturday’s 10-0 no-hitter win in six innings.
After a ground out in the first, the next Cuero batter reached on an error and that would be their only base runner of the entire game.
Cloudy struck out the next batter and then the Hounds got out of the first inning with a pop up to right. The Cuero base runner stole second at some point but that’s as close as the Gobblers came to scoring a run.
From there, Cloudy and the rest of the BHS defense went 3 up and 3 down over the next five innings. Cloudy didn’t give up a hit, or a walk, while he fanned 8. Cloudy didn’t return in the seventh because the Hounds ended it in the sixth.
With the Cuero bats quiet, the Boerne offense cranked out a run in every inning. They scored single runs through the first five frames and then busted it open with 5 runs in the sixth to get its 10 runs and end the game.
Boerne knocked the ball around pretty good and finished with 14 hits, including 5 doubles.
Brooks Perez and Riley Pechacek singled, scored and pushed in a run, Cam Johnson doubled, took 2 walks and scored 4 runs, Hutson Hendrix doubled and singled and picked up 4 RBI, Jace Preston doubled and pushed in 2 runs, Dylan Perez doubled and singled, drove in a run and scored, Hudson McNew doubled and singled and scored a run, Cale Blalock hit 2 singles and collected an RBI and Walker Hill recorded 2 singles and scored a run.
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