L-E opens season with 9-3 win over Queen City
TEXARKANA, Texas — Liberty-Eylau won its opening game of the baseball season, but the Leopards had to score seven runs in their last two at-bats for a 9-3 victory over Queen City Monday night at H.E. Markham Field.
The Leopards broke open a 2-2 game with four runs on just two hits in the bottom of the fifth, by taking advantage of two errors, two walks and two wild pitches.
Landon Drake relieved Bulldogs’ starter Clint Wiley and retired the first batter.
Cal Jones, who came on in relief of W.T. Jones on the mound for L-E, started the rally with a single.
Tristan Haugh followed with a walk. W.T. Jones then hit a fly ball to left, but the left fielder dropped the ball to load the bases.
Then came two easy runs. Cal Jones scored on a wild pitch, and Haugh scored soon after on a passed ball.
Britain Pipes drew a walk before Dylan Garton hit a grounder to third. W.T. Jones was caught in a rundown and tagged out.
Pipes soon scored on another wild pitch, and Garton scored the fourth run of the inning on a single by Collin Evans for a 6-2 lead.
The Leopards’ bats came alive in the sixth frame, scoring three more runs on five hits.
Hagen Powers, Haugh, Pipes and Garton had a single each, and Cal Jones blasted a triple to right-center to account for the five hits, to raise the score to 9-2.
Queen City scored its final run in the seventh inning.
It was a battle of strikeouts in the beginning as W.T. Jones had nine Ks through four innings, and the Bulldogs’ Clint Wiley had seven.
Queen City broke on top first with two runs on three straight hits in the third inning.
Rilee Green, Clayton Whittenberg and Layton Chamblee had a single each.
Liberty-Eylau responded with two runs in the bottom half on just one hit. Two walks, a hit batter and a single by Pipes accounted for the runs.
Cal Jones and Pipes led the Leopards’ nine-hit attack with two hits apiece.
Whittenberg paced Queen City with two of the Bulldogs’ six hits.