ROUND ROCK – A late rally by Argyle proved to be the difference in Thursday’s 5A state semifinals game against Boerne Champion at Dell Diamond Stadium.
The Chargers held a 2-0 advantage after two innings, but the Eagles tallied runs during its last three at bats to overcome Champion in Round Rock, 5-2.
Argyle advances to the 5A title game Saturday, while the best baseball season in Chargers history comes to a close with a record of 33-12-1.
Champion head coach Ben Woodchick took the Chargers to the state tournament in only his second season at the school and said everyone gave great effort this year.
“I’m so proud of them, it takes heart and grit. It takes a lot of effort,” he said. “This game was threehours long and that’s how our season has been. We grind out every at bat and grind out every pitch. Here we are in Round Rock and I’m proud of every single one of them.”
Champion grabbed the early momentum by scoring single runs in the first two frames after they put on the first batter of the inning and managed to score both times.
Jordan Ballin walked to start the game, moved to second on an Evan Kuhl sac bunt and then as he was stealing third, the throw from the Argyle catcher to third base sailed into left field, allowing Ballin to scoot home.
In the second, Grant Kinzel singled to start the inning and a Quinn Grable walk moved Kinzel to second. From there, Gage Goldberg ripped a double to left field and brought in Kinzel for the 2-0 edge.
Champion also put on its lead batters on in the third and fourth frames, but the trend of scoring them didn’t continue. Kuhl walked to start the third frame and Quinn Grable also walked in the fourth, but neither was able to score. In fact, the Chargers didn’t record a hit past the second inning after the Kinzel single and Goldberg double.
Argyle pitcher Reid Ross entered in the third inning and didn’t give up a hit in his 4.2 innings of work. He took over for Park Prater, who started on the bump and went 2.1 frames, and had both Charger runs and hits charged to him.
Champion’s 2-0 lead stood until the fourth when the Eagles tied it with two runs. Three hit batters and two walks produced the two Argyle runs to knot it up at 2-2.
“They had a lot of quality at bats, they strung our pitchers out and made them throw a lot of pitches, so we had to get multiple guys on the mound,” Woodchick said.
Aidan Smith started for the Chargers and went 3.2 innings and was replaced by Jackson Melanson, who threw an inning, while Rowdy Miller entered in the fifth and also pitched in the sixth frame.
The Eagles pulled ahead in the fifth after two walks, another hit batter, two singles and a sac fly pushed in two runs for the 4-2 lead.
Argyle manufactured another run in the bottom of the sixth with a single, two walks and a sac fly to right field gave them the 5-2 advantage.
The Eagles’ defense put together three double plays from the fifth through the seventh innings, all three to end each frame and the final one to end the game and the Champion season.
“They’re good in the middle and made a good play to end the game,” Woodchick said. “You’ve got to stay out of the double play obviously but in high school when they’re hitting it hard and on a line, there’s nothing you can get mad at. Sometimes it falls and sometimes it doesn’t. We’ve been hitting the ball hard all year and we’ve found a lot of holes, but we didn’t find them at the right time tonight.”
Champion graduates nine seniors from the team and they are Jared Wingo, Ethan Harrison, Rowdy Miller, Andrew Frei, Robbie Vela, Wyatt Chandler, Braden Cain, Nate Mayo and Nic Cortez.
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