The McLennan Highlanders and Weatherford Coyotes split Saturday's conference doubleheader at Bosque River Ballpark.
The Coyotes defeated the Highlanders 3-2 in game one with Reece Calvert taking the loss on the mound.
Weatherford's three runs came in the top of the third. Sam Mahofski and Lachlan Mayo drew back-to-back walks. Philip Krauss was safe at first on an error, bringing Mahofski in to score. Mayo then scored on a sacrifice bunt by Levi Zents. Jaime Lovell followed with a single to score Krauss.
McLennan's two runs came in the bottom of the fifth. Noah McGowan led off with a double and Creighton Eldridge drew a walk. Pinch hitter Griffin Williams followed with a fielder's choice, scoring McGowan and putting Eldridge out at second. Williams then moved around to third on a single by Joe Breaux and came in to score on a wild passed ball.
The Highlanders bounced back to shut out the Coyotes 6-0 in the night cap. Chris Glover picked up the win on the mound and Mark Doerries got the save.
McLennan began the scoring with a run in the bottom of the first as James Rudkin doubled and scored on a double by Dimas Ojeda.
The Highlanders added a run in the fifth. Rudkin and Ojeda drew back-to-back walks. Cory Voss followed with a single to score Rudkin.
Another Highlander run scored in the sixth as Chris Roller reached first safely on an error, stole second, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Mario Vela and scored on a sacrifice fly by Nic Motley.
The final three McLennan runs scored in the bottom of the eighth. Brendan Venter and Breaux began the inning with back-to-back home runs. Vela then singled, advanced to second on a fly out by Motley and came around to score on a Weatherford error.
"The doubleheader split today is a little bit of a disappointment, but overall I have to be very pleased with winning three out of four against Weatherford," head coach Mitch Thompson said. "Our guys pitched well virtually in every game. We played pretty good defensive and we obviously swung the bats well to sweep them Wednesday there. Then, to come back and split here today, I was excited to see that."
"We had some real good things happen today. Glover was outstanding to start for us in game two. We needed him to be, after losing such a close game. It's a little bit of a deflator to lose game one. We needed Chris to be sharp in game two, and he was. Then, Doerries was outstanding coming in and closing out the ballgame."
"We made some really nice plays defensively. Our catchers threw the ball well this weekend, which was exciting. We made some nice plays in the outfield too. Ojeda and Eldridge saved us two or three runs in game one today."
"Overall, it's a good win and it keeps us in the hunt for the conference championship. We have two weekends left. Our goal is to just continue to get better and continue to improve so we can be playing our best baseball here at the end of the year. Today makes 13 out of the last 15 games for us in the W column, so we are obviously going to take that. But, when you play good people, you are going to occasionally get beat. I give Weatherford and their pitcher Tyler Wesley a lot of credit for the game-one win. I thought he was outstanding and kept us off balance and really pitched a great game."
Weatherford 3, McLennan 2
Weatherford 003 000 0 – 3 6 0
McLennan 000 020 0 – 2 4 2
Tyler Wesley and Jaime Lovell. Reece Calvert, Dustin Jourdan (6) and Cory Voss. WP: Wesley; LP: Calvert. Leading hitters – Weatherford: Philip Krauss (1-4, 2B)0, Levi Zents (0-0, RBI) and Jaime Lovell (3-3, RBI); McLennan: Dimas Ojeda (2-3), Noah McGowan (1-3, 2B) and Griffin Williams (0-1, RBI). Record: McLennan 36-10 (16-7).
McLennan 6, Weatherford 0
Weatherford 000 000 000 – 0 4 3
McLennan 100 011 03x – 6 9 1
Reagan MacDonald, Travis Stone (6) and Jaime Lovell. Chris Glover, Mark Doerries (7) and Nic Motley. WP: Glover; LP: MacDonald: SV: Doerries. Leading hitters – Weatherford: Levi Zents (1-3, 2B); McLennan: James Rudkin (2-4, 2B), Dimas Ojeda (1-3, 2B, RBI), Cory Voss (1-4, RBI), Brendan Venter (2-3, HR, RBI) and Joe Breaux (1-1, HR, RBI). Record: McLennan 37-10 (17-7).
