Boerne High’s Bill Merrell ended his coaching career last Friday night in Corpus Christi against Sinton to cap a crazy day at Whataburger Field.
After dropping Game 1 to Sinton on Thursday in San Antonio at Wolff Stadium, the Greyhounds won Game 2 Friday afternoon, 8-5, in nine innings to force a third game later that night. It was a wild second game that featured two player ejections and two assistant coaches being tossed.
Once that third game started, the Hounds and Pirates played until about 11 p.m. before Sinton closed out the Boerne season and Merrell’s career with a score of 9-0 to end seven hours of baseball.
Merrell said he didn’t really say much to the team after Game 3 because Sinton was on the field celebrating, so he wanted to save it for later, particularly for Wednesday when the Hounds have their awards ceremony.
“I didn’t say anything to our kids, I just thanked them, I told them, ‘thanks for your hard work, we accomplished a lot of great things,’” he said. “For me, that was it, it was over.”
Merrell retires after 44 years of coaching and with 696 combined wins at Boerne High and before that at Perryton. The last 14 years were spent at Boerne High.
“I hate to leave but after 44 years it’s time for me to move on and do something ese,” he said.
Game 1
BHS took a 2-1 lead into the seventh inning but couldn’t hold it as Sinton rallied for 2 runs in the top of the seventh and then fended off the Hounds in the bottom half of the inning for the 3-2 victory.
Sinton scored a single run in the second for the 1-0 lead but Boerne jumped on top in the fourth with 2 runs. Hutson Hendrix singled and Hudson McNew walked to put runners at first and second. Dylan Perez singled to load the bases and then Cale Blalock walked to bring in Hendrix and tie it up.
Walker Hill was then hit by a pitch and brought in McNew from third and Boerne was up 2-1.
It stayed that way until the top of the seventh when a walk and an error put runners on for the Pirates. A couple of passed balls later and it was tied at 2-2 with a runner at third. A single brought in the runner from third for the 3-2 Sinton lead with only one out but the Hounds were able to finally retire the side when a runner was thrown out at home and the other popped up to centerfield.
Boerne still had last bats in the bottom of the seventh and Cam Johnson led off the inning with a single. He moved to second on a Riley Pechacek sac bunt for the first out, but a ground out and a pop up to centerfield ended the contest.
Game 2
Game 2 was certainly a wild one that featured the four Sinton ejections – 2 players and 2 coaches – and went 3.5 hours before the Hounds won it 8-5 in nine innings.
The Greyhounds had a fast start and were up 5-1 after three innings. Sinton scored a run in the sixth and then rallied in the seventh to tie it with 3 runs.
The Pirates had the bases loaded with two outs and had the winning run 90 feet away but Campbell Jackson, who entered in relief, struck out the next batter to send it to extra innings tied at 5-5.
After neither team scored in the eighth, BHS made its move in the ninth. Sinton did turn a double play in the inning for the first two outs, but three straight walks and a hit batter gave Boerne a 6-5 lead. From there, Cale Blalock doubled and two more runs scored for the 8-5 advantage before the side was retired.
Jackson struck out the first two batters in the bottom of the ninth and then a fly out to right field ended it and knotted up the series at 1-1, forcing a third game.
Xander Cloudy started on the hill and went 6.2 innings before Jackson entered in relief and closed it out with 2.1 innings of work to get the win.
BHS had 8 hits in the game and were led by Riley Pechacek who finished with 3 hits and 2 RBI, while Cale Blalock doubled and picked up 3 RBI.
Game 3
Sinton scored 4 in the first, 1 in the second, 2 in the third, followed by single runs in the fourth and fifth frames to get its 9 runs and the 9-0 win. The Pirates were on the verge of run ruling Boerne, but the Hounds held them off and took it to the seventh inning.
Boerne used five different pitchers in the game to try and slow down the Pirates but Sinton scored in each of the first five innings.
The Hounds finished with 3 hits, including 2 from Jace Preston and another from Dylan Perez.
Aidan Moody picked up the win for the Pirates and went 6.2 innings and threw the maximum pitches allowed, 110.
Boerne catcher Cale Blalock tags out a Sinton base runner at home plate during Game 1 action.
Star photo by Kerry Barboza
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