Boerne baseball beats Bishop, advances to regional finals

SAN ANTONIO – Boerne High swept Bishop in the fourth round of the playoffs and advanced to the regional finals The Greyhounds won a blowout, 13-3, in Game 1 in Jourdanton and then took a close one Friday at Wolff Stadium, 1-0, to sweep the Badgers.

BHS improves to 30-9 overall and faces the winner of the Calallen – Needville series.

Boerne High coach Geoff Curtin is in his first year with the program and said he’s not surprised at how well his team has done so far. They have a new coach and graduated a lot from last year’s team, but that hasn’t stopped them from continuing their playoff success.

“There’s so much tradition here and the kids kind of expect to be good and expect to win,” he said. “Their work ethic is so good, they work every day and it’s a testament to those guys.”

Game 2

The closeout game turned into a defensive struggle with only one run scored.

Jackson Grimes pitched a gem on the diamond and only gave up 1 hit, 3 walks and struck out 6. Grimes received great defensive play behind him, especially in the top of the third when Bishop loaded the bases with no outs, but didn’t score.

A bunt that hit the Badgers batter on the bounce was the first out and then the Greyhounds turned a double play. A short bloop to centerfield was caught by Dylan Perez and then the runner from third tagged and was thrown out at home after catcher Jace Preston applied the tag.

It stayed at 0-0 until the Greyhounds struck in the sixth. Walker Hill singled and then a sac bunt by Preston moved Hill to second with two outs.

Bishop intentionally walked Hudson McNew to put the force in play. That brought up Hutson Hendrix, who burned the Badgers in Game 1 with a 3-run homer.

Hendrix came through with a clutch single. Hill was moving on contact and the wide receiver on the football scored easily for the 1-0 lead that held.

Bishop went down in order in the top of the seventh with two strikeouts and a pop up to Hill in right.

Game 1

JOURDANTON – Boerne High blew open a close game with Bishop thanks to a 3-run home run in the third inning by Hutson Hendrix.

The Greyhounds added 4 more runs that inning for a 7-run frame and went on to defeat the Badgers, 13-3, in seven innings.

Thursday’s game in Jourdanton was tied 1-1 going into the third after Bishop scored a run in the first and Boerne answered with a run in the top of the second.

In the third, Jace Preston and Hudson McNew both singled with one out. Hendrix came up and smashed a full-count offering over the left-field fence for the 4-1 lead.

BHS coach Geoff Curtin said the Hendrix hit change the tone of the game.

“He’s been hitting the ball great all week,” Curtin said. “It was great for him and huge for us.”

And Boerne wasn’t done in the inning. Ryan Hooper singled, while Jackson Grimes and Reese House both walked and the bases were juiced.

Grant Tamplet came up and doubled to bring in Hooper and Grimes and it was 6-1. After the Badgers recorded the second out of the inning, Walker Hill singled and drove in House and Tamplet for the 8-1 advantage.

Bishop tried to answer and plated a run in the bottom of the inning and it was 8-2, but the Badgers never really made a serious push at Boerne’s lead after the third.

Both teams added single runs in the fifth to make it 9-3 and the Greyhounds recorded 4 more runs in the top of the seventh but it wasn’t a runrule game since it went the full seven innings and Bishop still had to bat in the bottom half of the frame.

In the top of the seventh, Dylan Perez walked and Jace Preston singled to score Perez for the 10-3 lead. McNew singled and Hendrix walked and the bases were loaded once again.

A balk allowed Ronnie Scarbrough to score from third and then a wild pitch let Colton Shaver make ithomeforthe12-3advantage.

Grimes came up and singled and Hendrix scored his third run of the game and it was 13-3 before the Badgers could retire the side.

Campbell Jackson was nearing his pitch limit but retired the side in order in the bottom of the seventh and managed to finish it out. A ground out and two strikeouts ended it with Jackson at his limit of 110 on the last play of the game.

Jackson gave up 6 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks and he struck out 7.

Curtin said they basically got back to basics and it worked.

“Last week we kind of got away from stuff we did all season. I don’t know if you want to call it overthinking but we just went back to simple this week and we were better for it tonight,” he said.