Mustangs make history with win
The Magnolia West Mustangs continue to rewrite their own history book.
The next chapter is a trip to the fifth round of the UIL high school baseball playoffs for the first time.
The Mustangs rallied late to top Nederland 4-2 Thursday night for a Region III-5A semifinal sweep at Darryl & Lori Schroeder Park on the campus of the University of Houston.
“We’re just winners,” Magnolia West senior Dylan Van Wicklen said. “We compete from Day 1 and in practicing, we’re fighting hard. Every day for moments like this. We go through adversity. Both games (Nederland) goes up 1-0 on us. But we just keep fighting back.”
The Mustangs (30-5), who previously never made it past the third round, now await the winner of the Georgetown/Santa Fe series. The Indians took a onegame advantage over Georgetown, the No. 1ranked team in the state, in Game 1 Thursday.
The Bulldogs end the season 22-13-2 after making it to the fourth round for the first time in 10 years.
Nederland rallied late with two runs in the bottom of the seventh.
With runners at the corners and one out, Nederland’s Wade Butler hit a ball down the third-base line that was called foul at first. The call was then reversed to a fair ball (which would have scored a run) after a brief discussion with the home plate and third base umpires. Then after a second meeting of all four umpires, it was called foul again.
Magnolia West reliever Zach Wall, who entered the game on the mound earlier in the inning with a runner on and no outs, then got the strikeout for the second out of the inning.
The game then ended on a dropped third strike with Rene Cunningham up. Cunningham was thrown out at first base and then Omar Mascorro, who was at third base, sprinted home and was tagged at the plate to end the game in thrilling fashion in favor of the Mustangs.
“It was a wild night and wild series,” Magnolia West coach Justin Faltysek said. “Nederland is a quality ball club. They’re scrappy, they’re tough, they fight. They gave us all we could handle. We overcame adversity.”
Willie Ibarra first gave the Mustangs the lead with a run on a wild pitch. No. 8 hitter JP Ellwanger and No. 9 Austin Maddox followed with back-to-back RBI singles to boost the Mustangs up to a 4-1 lead. All three runs came off Nederland reliever Jacob Mares, who was inserted in the game for starter Noah Gregory after he allowed the lead-off single to Ibarra.
“Bottom of the order — they are just clutch in big moments,” Van Wicklen said.
Magnolia West starter Robert Revels wiggled out of a huge threat in the bottom of the inning. Nederland loaded up the bases with two outs before the lefty induced a pop out to Wall at shortstop by Landon Hiltz.
Nederland got on the board first in the bottom of the fourth. Corbin Chandler singled up the middle and Cunningham came around from second base to make it a 1-0 game.
Wall picked up the save in relief.
“We just focus on fundamentals in practice,” Van Wicklen said when asked about how well the pitching and defense has been. “That’s all it takes.”