Highlanders drop a pair of games to Cisco

The No. 5 McLennan Highlanders dropped both games of Friday afternoon's doubleheader with the No. 20 Cisco Wranglers at Bosque River Ballpark.

Cisco needed a couple of extra innings to defeat the Highlanders 3-2 in game one with Daniel Cole taking the loss on the mound.

The Wranglers began the scoring with a run in the top of the second as William Hollis singled, advanced to second on a sacrifice by Zach Sweet, moved to third on a ground out by Justin Fragale, and scored on an error.

Cisco doubled their lead with Mack Mueller's solo home run in the fourth.

McLennan got on the board with a run in the fifth as Chase Sortor tripled and scored on a single by George Callil.

The Highlanders tied the game with a run in the sixth as Aidan Shepardson singled, moved around to third on a single by Josh Breaux and scored on a sacrifice fly by Keaton Milford.

Cisco scored the winning run in the top of the ninth inning as Tommy Sepulveda tripled and scored on a ground out by Michael Hoehner.

The Wranglers defeated the Highlanders 6-3 in the nightcap with Logan Freeman taking the loss on the mound.

All three of McLennan's runs came in the bottom of the third inning. Shepardson doubled and scored on a home run by Breaux. Thomas Santos then singled and scored on a double by Paxton.

Cisco responded with five runs in the top of the fourth. Hoehner walked, Mueller singled, and Hollis walked to load the bases. Hoehner came in to score on a sacrifice fly by Sweet. Anthony Dominguez then doubled to scored Mueller and Hollis. Ryne Edmondson singled, and Christian Smith followed with a double to score Dominguez. Edmonson then scored on a ground out by Sepulveda.

The Wranglers rounded out the scoring with a run in the top of the sixth. Edmondson and Smith both singled. Edmondson then moved to third on fly out by Sepulveda and scored on a single by Michael Berglund.

"We lost two really hard-fought games to a very good Cisco team. I give Cisco a lot of credit; I thought the pitchers threw exceptionally well, competed really hard, and their offense did the exact same thing," head coach Mitch Thompson said. "Obviously I'm disappointed to lose two ballgames; I don't think we played our best. There are some things we have to learn from. We are going to have to continue to get tougher and be able to make plays, and execute at crunch time."

"We had many opportunities in game one to win the game and couldn't seem to get it done offensively. We played well on defense and made big plays on defense, and made big pitches but could not get it done offensively at crunch time. Then in game two, we just let it get away from us. We didn't pitch well in one inning and Cisco put up five runs on us and ended up winning the ballgame."

"We will have to bounce back. This is a tough one for us to take, but it's one that we need to learn from, and we will go to work and get ready to go for Grayson."

Cisco 3, McLennan 2
Cisco 010 100 001 – 3 9 2
McLennan 000 011 000 – 2 8 2
Matt Willrodt, Derek Wells (7), Taylor Munkres (7) and Michael Hoehner. Grant Miller, Daniel Cole (6) and Nick Thornquist. WP: Munkres; LP: Cole. Leading hitters – Cisco: Tommy Sepulveda (1-4, 3B), Michael Hoehner (0-4, RBI), Mack Mueller (2-5, HR, RBI) and William Hollis (4-4, 2 2B); McLennan: Keaton Milford (2-3, RBI), Chase Sortor (1-2, 3B) and George Callil (1-3, RBI). Record: McLennan 33-11 (18-5).

Cisco 6, McLennan 3
Cisco 000 501 0 – 6 11 2
McLennan 003 000 0 – 3 7 0
Alex Palmer, Garret Cobb (7) and Michael Hoehner. Logan Freeman, Connor Heffron (4), Tristen Bayless (6) and Josh Breaux. WP: Palmer; LP: Freeman. Leading hitters – Cisco: Tommy Sepulveda (1-4, RBI), Michael Berglund (1-4, RBI), Michael Hoehner (2-3), Mack Mueller (2-3), Zach Sweet (0-3, RBI), Anthony Dominguez (1-3, 2B, 2 RBI), Ryne Edmondson (2-3) and Christian Smith (2-3, 2B, RBI); McLennan: Dylan Neuse (1-4, 3B), Aidan Shepardson (2-3, 2B), Josh Breaux (1-3, HR, 2 RBI) and Griffin Paxton (1-3, 2B, RBI). Record: McLennan 33-12 (18-6).