BROCK – The Early Longhorns loaded the bases and scored twice in the top of the seventh inning, but their rally was quashed one run shy of pulling even with the undefeated Jim Ned Indians, who advanced to the Region I-3A semifinals with a 3-2 victory in Thursday night’s one-game regional semifinal playoff.
No. 2 Jim Ned (30-0-1), which also defeated Early by a 7-4 count back in March, broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and added what turned out to be the decisive run in the top of the sixth.
But in its final at-bat of the season, Early (23-10) – which rallied in both games of last week’s area playoff series win over Ballinger as well the bi-district series finale against Breckenridge – made one last charge.
The Longhorns began the top of the seventh with a walk by Caleb McCullough – the first of three issued in the inning, and for the game, by Jim Ned winning pitcher Tate Yardley, who surrendered five hits with 14 strikeouts over 6.2 innings.
With one out, Frankie Villarreal followed with his second hit of the contest, then Rode Walters drew a two-out walk to fill the sacks. Ki Houston then delivered a two-out, two-strike RBI single up the middle that resulted in Early’s first run. Jeremy Brown followed and a drew a bases-loaded walk that brought the Longhorns within a run.
The bases remained loaded with two outs, and the go-ahead run was at second base when Yardley was lifted in favor of reliever Blaine Palmer. With the outcome at stake, Palmer fired just three pitches to earn Jim Ned’s 15th strikeout of the game and the victory.
“It was one heck of a ball game,” said Early head coach Todd Hatton. “These are two good teams that laid it all on the line in a one-game playoff and both teams came out here and got after it. I really thought that was the way our kids would play and I knew they would step up to the competition and they did. Jim Ned’s not 30-0 for no reason, but we matched them tonight. We had bases loaded when the game ended with a chance to take the lead and win the ball game, so I can’t ask anymore of our kids to give ourselves that opportunity.”
Jim Ned grabbed a 2-0 lead in the fourth as Troy Doran led off with a walk and Landon Tant reached on a bunt single. Following a sacrifice bunt by Yardley, Early pitcher Caiden Laird was called for a balk before hurling his first pitch to the next batter, Palmer, which allowed Doran to trot home. After the balk call, Palmer lifted an RBI sacrifice fly to center field that brought home Tant with the second run.
“It’s extremely unfortunate the first run came on a balk call in a 0-0 game in the regional quarterfinals,” Hatton said. “That’s very unfortunate, but I was proud of our kids for not getting rattled by that. They just kept playing.”
Jim Ned tacked on the decisive run in the sixth inning as Doran led off with a triple to right-center field and came home on a one-out RBI double to same spot in the outfield by Yardley.
Overall, Laird yielded five hits while striking out a pair, walking two, leaving three base runners stranded and limiting Jim Ned to its second-lowest offensive output of the season.
“ For a sophomore to come out here against the No. 2 team in the state, he never got rattled and kept his composure the whole game no matter what happened,” Hatton said of Laird. “I thought he pitched amazingly well, kept us in the game and gave us a chance. They scored a couple of runs but he limited the damage, and that’s all you can ask.”
Aside from the seventh inning, Early’s best chance to score came in the top of third inning. With one out, Houston reached on a slow roller through the middle of the infield and Brown followed with a towering single to shallow left field. Following a wild pitch, the runners advanced to third and second base, respectively, with one out, where they remained as Yardley retired Rylie Hill and Bradly Roman to escape the jam.
“That would have been huge,” Hatton said of potentially grabbing an early lead. “Looking back I wish I had probably had Rylie (Hill) lay one down, a little safety squeeze or something like that to put a little pressure on them. You always have hindsight, and I think if we take the lead on them there that would have put more pressure on them being 29-0. That was our goal, to try and get the lead early and put a little pressure on them but unfortunately we couldn’t get the bat on the ball. He’s a heck of a pitcher, throws hard, has good control and he’s a competitor.”
Reflecting on the season, Hatton said, “For our kids to see the improvement they’ve made throughout the year, it’s been incredible. It’s been a fun group to coach. They compete hard, you saw that in the Breckenridge series, then to play the way they did against Ballinger and all through district, for a young team to do that and keep grinding and battling, I’m extremely impressed and excited about the future.”
Peeking into the future with all but two members of this season’s team returning, Hatton said, “It’s bright. We have two seniors we really hate to lose, but with that young group and the core we have with them, then our JV was stout with a lot of freshmen, it’s a bright future at Early and that’s exciting. I told them to remember how this one-run loss feels and next year let’s turn the tables on them.”
