Costly Defeat
With loss, Texas High’s postseason hopes suffer setback
It wasn’t as easy as Marshall was hoping it would be after the Mavericks’ first two innings.
Texas High’s postseason hopes suffered a setback Friday at the Tigers’ diamond as Marshall (149, 4-3) took over undisputed possession of third place in District 16-5A with an 9-6 victory.
While it was a costly loss for the Tigers, Texas High coach John McClure was not down on his club.
“You get down six runs early like we did, the easiest thing to do is just turn it off,” McClure said. “You never like to lose, but we saw some fight from the kids. I saw some signs of the guys swinging the bats a little bit better. Marshall is a very good baseball team, definitely one of the four playoff teams from our district in my opinion.
“We’re still in front of three teams in district, and we’ve got to control what we can control. We’re capable of beating both Sulphur Springs and Hallsville if we play good.”
Pine Tree played Sulphur Springs Friday, and a win by the Pirates would give them a share of fourth place with THS.
The Mavericks jumped out to an early 6-0 lead with six hits off sophomore Walker Davis, including a two-run homer in the second by senior standout Cameron Haller.
Marshall lost its momentum in the Tigers’ half of the second after a two-run double by Dakota Turner.
Maverick starter Ty Kirkland got himself in trouble in the third when he issued free passes to Conner Allred and Colby Adkins. Both runners scored with two outs when Christen Cole’s fly to right was dropped.
Texas High (10-11, 3-4) had Tiger fans cheering wildly in the fourth with two more runs to tie the score at 6-all.
A Marshall error gave THS a runner, and an infield hit by Chris Lyles put Tigers at first and second. They moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Jakob Hearne, and scored on Allred’s double to left-center.
The game was still tied when the Tigers had runners at the corners with two outs in the fifth. That’s when Marshall had to remove Kirkland, who had surpassed the new 110-pitch rule. Eventual winner Trevor Clark got Turner on a grounder to end the threat.
Sophomore Walker David tired in the sixth, walking three and yielding a run-scoring single to Clark. A wild pitch made it 8-6.
Nathan Hicks led off the Mavs’ seventh with an infield hit,
advanced on a passed ball, and to third on a groundout. Hicks scored on a wild pitch.
Clark walked Adkins to start the Tigers’ seventh, but got the next three batters to end the game.
Lyles and Cole had two hits each for THS, while Clark was the only Marshall player with more than one hit.
Marshall 420 002 1 — 9 9 2 Texas High 022 200 0 — 6 9 2
Ty Kirkland, Trevor Clark (5) and Cameron Haller; Walker Davis, Kyle Choate (7) and Jordan Thomas. WP-Clark; LP-Davis. HR-MAR., Haller, 2nd, 1 on.