Marion baseball stays undefeated with bi-district playoff sweep of Ingram-Moore
(Boerne) – Marion cruised through the 3A bi-district baseball playoffs in dominant fashion on Friday with 7-1 and 16-1 wins over Ingram-Moore at Boerne-Champion High School.
Konner Harborth pitched a four-inning two-hitter, struck out six, and allowed a single earned run in the first game to grab the win on the mound.
Cameron Baumann went 2-3 at the plate and drove in four runs. Ty Blake drove in two and scored three times.
Jake Burris, Lane Pawelek, Bryce Gonyer, and Chase Hallmark each drove in a run, and Hallmark hit a triple.
Burris, Kallen Bek, and Ryken Autry recorded two hits apiece. Bek scored three runs, and Autry crossed the plate twice.
Gonyer hurled a three-hitter and struck out 10 in the series clincher. The only run he allowed was unearned.
Bek and Pawelek each hit a triple. Bek finished with two hits, two RBIs, and a run scored. Autry went 3-4 with a double and scored once.
The Bulldogs (25-0) face Columbus in area playoffs this week. The format, times, and locations had yet to be finalized at press time.
Wimberley rallies past Navarro in bi-district baseball playoffs
(Wimberley) – Navarro was three outs away from sweeping Wimberley in the 4A bi-district basebal playoffs Saturday afternoon with a 1-0 series lead and a 3-1 lead in the seventh inning of Game 2, but the Texans rallied with six runs to tie the series with a 7-3 win and run-ruled the Panthers 15-5 in the third and deciding game.
Navarro won the first game of the series 4-0 on Friday in Geronimo. Jaxen Monkerud worked around five hits, three walks, and two Panther errors to strike out nine batters, strand nine runners and keep a zero in the Texans’ run column.
“It wasn’t his best night by far, but he still pounded the zone, and whenever he needed to,” Navarro head coach Kris Cavazos said. “He had a couple of walks, but he also had nine strikeouts and he trusted his defense, and our defense came to play.”
Monkerud also went 2-3 at the plate with an RBI double. His courtesy runner Case Monroe scored twice. Jacob Frederick went 1-3 and drove in a run.
Triston Brashears reached twice with a base hit and a walk, and his courtesy runner Baylor Quarles scored once.
Brashears also made a spectacular stretching catch at the plate for a force-out that kept Wimberley from scoring when the Texans had the bases loaded with one out and the makings of a rally in the top of the sixth inning.
The series moved to Wimberley on Saturday, and the Texans scored their first run of the weekend in the first inning of Game 2 when Ethan Lancaster drove in Josh Prado with a fielder’s choice.
Navarro responded with three runs in the second to go in front by two. Brashears singled to lead off the frame, Boswell followed with a one-out base hit, and Frederick singled in Monroe runing for Brashears for the Panthers’ first run. Marco Moncada sacrificed Boswell to third and Frederick to second, and Gavin Newbord drove in both runners with a single.
Navarro’s Bryce Nall and Wimberley’s Chase Carson dueled it out on the mound from that point. Carson tossed five perfect innings and allowed just one base runner the rest of the way. Nall stranded runners in scoring position in four straight innings and completed the sixth with the 3-1 lead intact and his pitch count at 105.
Caleb Thomas relieved Nall in the seventh and walked the first two batters. A dropped fly ball in right field off the bat of Ethan Lancaster allowed Prado to sprint home and make it a 3-2 game. Reliever Will Boswell hit Lane Patek with the bases loaded, allowing Dylan Kinkaid to score the tying run.
With the bases loaded and nobody out, Wimberley’s Ruger Riojas launched the walk-off grand slam to give Texans a 7-3 win and new life in the series.
“Hats off to Wimberley,” Cavazos said. “They keep fighting, and the last inning you never know what’s going to happen, and tip your hat to those guys.”
Wimberley carried that momentum into Game 3, plating seven runs in the first inning and two more in the second to put Navarro in a 9-0 hole.
The Panthers clawed their way back into the game with five straigh runs from that point. Moncada reached on an error and came home on Colton Tolleson’s RBI double to make it 9-1 in the third.
Matthew Villanueva drove in Jacob Frederick with a sacrifice fly in the fourth. With Jaxen Monkerud and Moncado on base, Nall blasted a three-run homer to left field to pull the Panthers within four runs at 9-5.
Wimberley used two walks, a hit batter and a grand slam to push the lead back to 13-5 in the bottom of the fifth, and the Texans plated two more runs in the frame to end the game by run rule.
Navarro’s pitchers combined to issue 16 free passes to the Wimberley lineup in the series finale – 12 walks and four hit batters – and the Texans scored six unearned runs.
“It’s the same thing we’ve talked about all season – we’ve got to be able to play the whole seven innings, and we’ve got to get outs when the outs are there, and we can’t walk people,” Navarro head coach Kris Cavazos said. “I’ve told them all year long, if you add up the errors and you add up the walks, that’s the number of runs we give up, and that was the case all season long, and in Game 2 especially.”
Saturday marked the final baseball games in the varsity careers of seniors Jaxen and Kaden Monkerud, Triston Brashears, Will Boswell, and Jacob Frederick.
“The seniors, man, they’re awesome,” Cavazos said. “They’ve been starting pretty much since they were sophomores. Losing them is going to be tough, just with the relationships that you build, but that’s what I’m here for. To build relationshsips, to teach them to be great young men.”
After finishing second in District 27-4A and falling in the bi-district playoffs, Navarro’s final season record is 19-12.
Navarro softball season ends in area playoff loss to Columbia
(Weimar) – Navarro dropped out of the 4A softball playoffs over the weekend with a 2-0 series loss to Columbia in the area round of the Region IV bracket, dropping Friday’s game 1-0 and Saturday’s contest 10-2 in Weimar.
The Panthers only managed two hits in the first game, a double by Sarah Falor and a single by Melina Tabares.
Samantha Wegman delivered an outstanding performance in the pitcher’s circle to keep Navarro in the game. Wegman allowed a single run on four hits with four walks and two strikeouts in six innings.
Falor hit a solo home run in the second game on Saturday. Tabares went 2-3 and drove in Sydni Stevens for Navarro’s other run. Stevens doubled, and Samantha Mundie went 2-3.
The Panthers went 22-9, won the District 27-4A championship, and advanced two playoff rounds in Danielle Guerra’s first season as head coach.
Jourdanton hands Marion softball season-ending loss in area playoffs
(Jourdanton) – Marion’s 2022 softball season ended Friday evening with a 16-4 road loss to Jourdanton in the area round of the 3A playoffs.
Gianna Ricarte drove in two runs to lead the Bulldogs at the plate.
Alexa Ortiz and Jaslyne Williams each delivered a base hit and scored once.
The Bulldogs finished second in District 26-3A and advanced two playoff rounds to finish with a final season record of 12-21-1.