SAN ANTONIO – For the first time in the 2024 baseball playoffs, the Greyhounds dropped the first game in a best-of-three series and will have to win two straight in order to advance.
Calallen took Game 1 over Boerne Thursday at the SAISD Spring Sports Complex to open the Region IV-4A finals.
The Wildcats broke up a 1-1 game with two runs in the top of the seventh for the 3-1 lead and held on for the victory.
Game 2 was Friday in Corpus Christi at Whataburger Field and a third game, if needed, is Saturday, 7 p.m. at Northeast Sports Park in S.A.
The Hounds scored first in the game, but Calallen tallied the final three runs of the contest.
Boerne jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning after Walker Hill singled and moved to second on a wild pitch.
With two outs, Hudson McNew singled up the middle to score Hill from second and the Hounds went up 1-0.
But Calallen tied it in the second after they loaded the bases with a single, hit batter and a bunt single.
The fourth straight Calallen batter in the inning reached with a single to tie it at 1-1, and the bases were still juiced with no outs.
The Wildcats could have scored more but the Boerne defense turned a rare triple play to limit the damage to just that one run.
Calallen’s Justin Calderon came up to bat and hit a line drive to Boerne right fielder Jackson Grimes for the first out. The Calallen runner-up at third moved towards home, changed his mind and tried to make it back to third.
The Grimes throw was cut off by first baseman Hutson Hendrix, who tossed to BHS third baseman Ryan Hooper, who tagged the runner for the second out.
The Calallen runner at second tagged up and tried to advance to third and was tagged out by Hooper to complete the triple play.
Boerne’s defense also turned a double play in the first to keep the game close. It stayed at 1-1 as BHS pitcher Campbell Jackson and Wildcat hurler Collier Carroll settled in and didn’t give up much over the next few innings.
Jackson didn’t allow a hit over the next four frames and faced the minimum amount of batters from the third through sixth frames.
Carroll basically did the same thing and only allowed one hit to the Greyhounds in their last five at bats and also faced the minimum amount of batters from the third through the seventh frames.
Dylan Perez singled in the sixth, but the Wildcats turned a double play to only face three batters that inning.
It came down to the seventh and Calallen made its move in the top of the inning. The leadoff batter, Blake Quinn, walked and his courtesy runner, Sebastian Dennis, advanced to second on a sac bunt.
After the next batter flied out to right for the second out, Dennis scored from second on a Drayton Mitchell single for the 2-1 lead.
RJ Cruz followed and singled to push in Mitchell and it was 3-1.
After giving up one more single, Jackson was at his pitch limit and was replaced by Eli Srp, who finished it out.
Srp gave up a single and then got the next batter to fly out to Grimes in right for the third out, but Calallen held a 2-run lead.
Carroll also maxed out on his pitches but was able to retire the side in order in the bottom of the seventh with two strike outs and a ground out to end it.
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