Chargers hand SV first district loss as Goldberg comes through with another clutch base hit

Boerne Champion handed the Smithson Valley baseball team its first loss in district play Tuesday, and if the Chargers beat them again Friday, that would move Champion into a tie for first place with the Rangers.

The Chargers edged the Rangers Tuesday in Boerne, 3-2, and stood at 9-2 in 26-5A heading into Friday’s contest at Ranger Field. Smithson Valley was 10-1 going into Friday’s game.

Champion is scheduled to play Clark in a non-district game Saturday and then closes out the regular season with two games next week against Seguin, while the Rangers plays a series with Pieper next week.

For the second district game in a row, Champion’s Gage Goldberg has come through with the game-winning hit. Last Friday against Pieper, Goldberg brought in the winning run from third on a sac fly in the bottom of the eighth, and on Tuesday, Goldberg was in the same spot, this time in the bottom of the seventh, and proved to be clutch again.

With the bases loaded, Goldberg hit a single to score Matthew Booth from third for Champion’s second walk-off win in district play, courtesy of Goldberg.

Champion jumped out to a 2-0 lead in Tuesday’s game with single runs in the second and third frames. The Rangers tied it in the sixth and started off the inning with a solo shot. They added another run and it was knotted up at 2-2.

In the seventh, Smithson Valley put a runner on with one out but AJ Grizzaffi entered for starter Sawyer Smith and retired the next two batters with strikeouts to send it to the bottom half of the inning.

Booth walked to start the frame and then Jordan Ballin singled to put two runners on. From there, Quinn Grable advanced the runners to second and third with a groundout.

The Rangers intentionally walked Evan Kuhl to load the bases and put the force into play. That’s when Goldberg came up and knocked in the game-winning run on a 1-2 count to secure the victory.

Ballin, Grable and Garland Whitehead all singled, Cam Logan doubled, singled, drove in a run and scored, Owen Kuhl singled and picked up an RBI, Booth walked and scored the winning run, while Goldberg had the game-winning RBI single.

Smith went 6.1 innings on the bump and Grizzaffi struck out the last two batters he faced. Smith fanned 7 and gave up 5 hits and 1 earned run.