After defeating Nevada Community 10-1 the night before, the Kennedale Wildcat baseball team (12-8-1) climbed aboard a bus for Athens, Texas Saturday morning to play the #10 rated Athen Hornets (20-5) in a second pre-playoff warm-up game in as many days. This one the Cats lost 9-5 but not without a fight.{{more}} Read more about Wildcat Baseball at GameChanger
Friday, the Wildcats will play Bridgeport in the first game of the best of three at 7:30 p.m. at home. The series moves to Bridgeport on Saturday. See below for more details.
Athens took an early 2-0 lead in the 1st but the game tilted towards Kennedale when the Cats got three runs to take the lead in the 4th 4-3. That lead held until the bottom of the 6th when Athens had a big 6 run inning and the Cats could only muster one run in the 7th. For the game, Athens had 9 runs on 11 hits with no errors and Kennedale had 5 runs on 7 hits and 3 errors.
Wildcat TJ Aguilar got a hit in each of his three at bats. He singled in the second and fourth innings and doubled in the sixth inning. Also doubling for the game were Cody Bossaller and Steven Murchison.
In five innings on the mound, Murchison allowed 3 runs on 6 hits, striking out 2 and walking 3. He threw 85 pitches with 48 strikes and had 10 ground/fly outs. Tyler Perez got the loss, pitching the 6th inning allowing 6 runs on 5 hits.
The bottom of the first saw Athens take an early lead, 2-0. A single by Boyd, scoring Bateman started the inning off. Athens then tacked on another run when Boyd scored on an RBI single by Takata. With two on one out Athens was poised to strike again until Bynum for Athens hit into a double play (Murchison – P, Alan Sather ? 1st).
In the second, the Kennedale Wildcats Varsity scored on an RBI single by Aguilar, bringing home Garland Washington the courtesy runner for Bossaller who reached on a walk.
Athens matched Kennedale with one run of its own in the second, scoring on a wild pitch to put the game 3-1.
After no score in the 3rd by either team, Kennedale got three runs on a walk (Aaron Williams), a hit batter (Bossaller), a bunt (Perez), a groundout (Sather) scoring Williams, a ground ball single to center scoring Washington (courtesy runner) and a steal home by Perez. The score was 4-3 at end of the 4th.
Kennedale next big chance came in the top of the 6th when they had two doubles (Aguilar, Bossaller) but left both runners in scoring position.
After holding the Hornets scoreless over three innings, Athens welcomed Kennedale?s Perez to the mound scoring six runs on an error, an RBI single by Chairez, and a three-run triple by Takata.
The Cats tried to rally in the top of the 7th, starting out strong with a single by Bryce Hackett and a double by Murchison and a steal of home by Washington (courtesy runner) giving Kennedale one run with no outs. Then in quick succession, Kennedale flied out, grounded out and was caught stealing home.
While not satisfied with the loss, Coach Paul Trantham was pleased with the way the team came back in the middle innings to take the lead and was still trying at the end of the game.
BI-DISTRICT PLAYOFF INFORMATIONThe UIL playoff begins with the Wildcats (12-8-1) playing the Bulls (8-8) from Bridgeport in the best of three bi-district match-up. Game one will be at home Friday at 7:30 pm at Kennedale High School. Game two will be Saturday at Bridgeport HS beginning at 1 p.m. Game 3 if needed will start 30 minutes after Game 2.4A Region 1-3 Playoff Brackets
STATS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E KNDL 0 1 0 3 0 0 1 5 7 3 ATHN 2 1 0 0 0 6 9 11 0 BATTING
Doubles 2B: TJ Aguilar, Cody
Bossaller, Steven Murchison
Total Bases TB: TJ Aguilar 4,
Cody Bossaller 2, Tyler Perez, Bryce Hackett, Steven Murchison 2
RBI: TJ Aguilar 2, Alan
Sather
Hit into Fielders Choice FC:
Alan Sather, Bryce Hackett
Hit by Pitcher HBP: Cody
Bossaller
Caught Stealing CS: Steven
Murchison
Totals Team QAB: 6 (20.00%) –
TJ Aguilar, Cody Bossaller 2, Austin Eggleston, Aaron Williams, Steven
Murchison
Team Left on Base LOB: 4
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