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Marion baseball season ends in regional quarterfinal loss to Blanco

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today
Marion baseball season ends in regional quarterfinal loss to Blanco


(San Antonio) – Marion bounced back from a Game 1 loss to tie a playoff series with a Game 2 win for the second straight week, but Blanco proved too much for the Bulldogs in the third and deciding game of the 3A Region IV quarterfinals on Saturday with a 9-2 win to end Marion’s season at North East Sports Park in San Antonio.

The Panthers run-ruled Marion 10-0 in five innings to open the series on Thursday. It was the Bulldogs’ first shutout of the season and the first time they allowed more than three runs in a game. Blanco’s Ryne Kaiser struck out nine and allowed just two hits on the night – a single apiece to Ryken Autry and Zach Halter.

Marion bounced back with a 2-0 win in Game 2 on Friday behind a masterful pitching performance by Konner Harborth.

The senior right hander tossed a three-hitter, struck out three to move his record to 3-0. Harborth worked around a walk, two hit batters, and three Bulldog errors to hand Blanco its first shutout in five years.

“He was awesome tonight,” Marion head coach Tim Tesch said. “Just the adrenaline that he had running through is body, he was locked in, and he’s pretty composed on the mound, and that helped him tonight. When he would get three outs, he was fired up, but then he was locked in right away. Coming out and throwing strikes, and throwing every pitch for a strike and keeping them off balance.”

Cameron Baumann drove in Kallen Bek for both Marion runs in Game 2. Baumann walked with the bases loaded to score Beck in the first inning, and plated him with an RBI single in the third.

Blanco built a 6-0 lead in Game 3, and the Bulldogs showed signs of clawing their way back in the game when Bek delivered a two-run single to score Halter and Chase Hallmark.

After Bek’s hit, Blanco head coach Bryan Wyatt relieved starting pitcher Carson Smith with Kaiser, who only threw 66 pitches in the Thursday series opener. Kaiser kept Marion scoreless the rest of the way, and Blanco added insurance runs in the sixth and seventh.

Saturday marked the final varsity baseball game in the high school careers of Marion seniors Bek, Harborth, Baumann, Autry, Lane Pawelek, Halter, Ty Blake, Bryce Gonyer, and Jake Burris.

They were the nucleus of a team that strung together the best start to a season and longest winning streak in program history; a 25-0 run that extended through the bi-district round of the playoffs.

“These nine seniors, man, they left a mark on this program that nobody in the history of Marion has ever done,” Tesch said. “This is my 13th year personally, and I can guarantee that this is the best team to ever run through here, so we’re not going to anything away from what they did this season, and those nine guys will be remembered by everybody in Marion for the rest of their lives.”

After winning the District 26-3A championship and advancing three playoff rounds to the regional quarterfinals, Marion’s final season record is 28-3.