Falcons eliminated after rally falls short
KATY — The grind of the high school baseball playoffs is well underway. Two of the state’s best battled on Friday. Tompkins was trying to keep its season alive. Ridge Point was attempting to close out the Falcons and advance.
A night after giving Tompkins a punch in the gut, Ridge Point earned a Class 6A Region III quarterfinal series-clinching 9-7 victory before an overflow crowd at Tompkins High School.
It was a crazy finish. Tompkins, which scored five runs in the last of the seventh, had the winning run at first base when the game ended.
Freshman lefty Jack McKernan got Cash Russell to fly out with the bases loaded to right fielder Owen Farris for the final out.
“We escaped with our lives there,” Ridge Point coach Clinton Welch said. “They’re a great team and they obviously showed they’re not going to quit. We just beat a great team.”
Ridge Point (28-3) scored single runs in each of the first three innings and looked to have put the game away with a six-run sixth inning. In winning for the 26th time in 27 games, the Panthers move on to play Pearland.
“This team has heart,” Ridge Point catcher J.J. Kennett said. “That’s what’s going to propel us and carry us on and keep winning, because we play for each other.”
Tompkins didn’t go out without a fight. The Falcons were hoping to force a Game 3. Ridge Point won Thursday 2-1 on Carter Groen’s walkoff single. The Panthers were down 1-0 with two outs and no one on base before their comeback.
On Friday, Tompkins’ seventh was highlighted by a two-run single from Drew Markle that put more than a scare into Ridge Point.
The outcome ended an outstanding season for Tompkins (29-4), which won its first 19 games and 28 of its first 29. Two of its first three losses were by one run. The Falcons were a regional finalist a year ago for coach Kyle Humphreys.
“That was impressive to watch the comeback they put on us at the end,” Welch said. “I feel fortunate to escape out here.”
Against Ridge Point, the Falcons fell behind early. They managed to get within 3-2 with a two-run third. But that was as close as the District 19-6A champions would get.
Groen’s two-run double was part of the Panthers’ big sixth inning. He drove in three runs for the game. Justin Vossos also had a two-run double in the sixth. The first three batters walked in the inning off Michael DeBattista, who before that rough stretch had been solid in relief.
Parker Martin and Travis Vlasek also drove in two runs for the Panthers, who got a solid performance from starting righthander Hunter Nichols, who picked up the win.
Over six innings, Nichols allowed only two runs and three hits. He struck out eight and walked four. After walking Jace LaViolette to open the last of the fifth, Nichols recovered, striking out the next three batters, preserving a 3-2 lead.
DeBattista kept Tompkins in the game, throwing four innings of relief off starter Solomon Rotberg, who struggled to find the zone over his 11⁄3 innings.
A two-run third inning got the Falcons within 3-2.
Rotberg had issues with his command over the nine batters he faced. Humphreys pulled his lefthander with one out in the second and runners on first and second and one outs
DeBattista came into a difficult situation. After retiring Dossett, DeBattista gave up a single to Martin, scoring Kwinn Pfeiffer from third, putting the Panthers up 2-0.
Farris likely saved a run with a long-running grab in the first inning for the visitors. With LaViolette on first base after walking, Little drilled a ball deep into the gap, but Farris tracked down the ball, making a diving catch for the second out.