Mustangs win doubleheader against Merkel

A doubleheader sweep by Sweetwater here Thursday continued the recent improvement of a baseball team that has now won five of its last seven games following a 1-7 start, with two games left until District 5-4A play.

Sweetwater beat Merkel 8-2 in the opener at Sportsman’s Park on just three hits and followed it up with a 9-1 win later in the day.

In both games, play ended after 4 1/2 innings.

The Mustangs scored two first inning runs in the first game with two in the third and four in the fourth, despite getting hits from just one player.

That player, Tate Thompson, was 3-for-3 with a two-run homer in the third inning, plus a double and RBI single, and three runs scored. He also fanned 10 batters while allowing one earned run and five hits in five innings, proving he was a double threat vs. Merkel. Jade Rodriguez drew a leadoff walk in the third and his courtesy runner, Cali Mendez, also scored when Thompson hit a 2-1 pitch over the fence to increase Sweetwater’s lead to 4-1. His fourth-inning hit made it 6-1, and Daniel Rodriguez and Blayne Bohall hit sac flies in the inning as well.

The Mustangs fell behind 1-0 in Game 2, just as they had in Game 1, but scored nine runs over the first three frames while Jade Rodriguez and Cash Barnes combined on the mound to allow one unearned run and four hits in five innings.

The first four batters in Sweetwater’s order had seven of the team’s eight hits, plus four runs scored and five RBI. Daniel Rodriguez’s triple scored the first two runs, and he drove in a third run with an RBI single in the second. A triple by Jadyn Forbes in the third made it 8-1, and he scored the final run on a balk by Merkel’s pitcher.

Jade Rodriguez, Daniel Rodriguez and Thompson had two hits each. Barnes and Mason Straley also had RBIs in the five-run first after the two-RBI triple by Daniel Rodriguez, who then came home on an error.