Flower Mound’s season was saved late Friday night, thanks to late-game heroics by shortstop Adrian Rodriguez.
Rodriguez hit a two-out, two-run triple down the right-field line in the bottom of the sixth to provide all of his team’s offense as defending state champion Flower Mound rallied to edge Keller 2-1 in Game 2 of a best-of-3 Class 6A Region I semifinal series at Dallas Baptist University’s Horner Ballpark. The Texas A&M commit drove home fellow future Aggie Sam Erickson and pinch-runner Kyle Conne after Erickson hit a single to left and Josh Glaser reached on a fielder’s choice.
Zack James took care of the rest with clutch pitching. The TCU commit had three strikeouts while scattering six hits and one walk for a complete-game win, improving to 6-0 this season.
Flower Mound (37-4), ranked No. 1 in the state in 6A and the No. 3 team in the MaxPreps national rankings, rebounded after a 6-1 loss in Game 1 on Thursday, which snapped a 24-game winning streak. The third and deciding is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday at Horner Ballpark.
Keller (27-12) fell despite a strong outing by Mason Cook, who also threw a complete game. Cook (9-2) had just two strikeouts, but scattered five hits — three in the sixth — with no walks.
Keller struck first in the top of the second inning, with Cole Koeninger bringing home Jackson Ridge with a triple to left-center. Koeninger was thrown at home by Flower Mound third baseman Cooper Skinner trying to score on a one-out grounder by Drew Roberts.
Flower Mound missed scoring chances in the first and third innings. In the first, Adam Hawrylak hit a one-out triple down the right-field line but Cook got a strikeout and popup to escape the jam.
In the third, Erickson smacked a double near the top of the left-field fence that missed being a homer by about three feet, but he was stranded on third base as Cook got a groundout to end the inning. Erickson and Hawrylak had two hits apiece for Flower Mound, while Ridge had two singles for Keller.
The game was delayed by inclement weather and didn’t start until 9:45 p.m.
Rick Kretzschmar
Lovejoy 7, Frisco 1: Air Force pledge Garrett Hutchins homered and was 2-for-2 with four RBIs as Lovejoy completed a two-game sweep of a Class 5A Region II semifinal series.
Lovejoy (27-7-2), ranked No. 3 in the state in 5A, will await the winner of Saturday’s Game 3 between ninth-ranked Forney and Frisco Lone Star. Facing a Frisco team that is No. 10 in the state, TCU pledge Logan Corley pitched a two-hitter and struck out seven for Lovejoy.
A day after winning 10-2 in Game 1, Lovejoy’s offense started fast Friday, scoring twice in the bottom of the first on a two-run homer by Hutchins. Lovejoy scored three runs in the third on a two-run single by Reese Ogden and an RBI triple by Oral Roberts signee Matthew Mainord, and Hutchins’ two-run single in the fourth made it 7-0.
Grapevine 4, Lubbock Cooper 0: Dallas Baptist signee Dasan Hill pitched a two-hit shutout and struck out nine as state No. 2-ranked Grapevine won Game 1 of a best-of-3 Class 5A Region I semifinal series in Graham.
Hill threw 100 pitches, and the only hits he allowed were a two-out double in the top of the first and a one-out double in the sixth. He worked around two walks in the fourth as Grapevine (35-4) — ranked No. 16 in the nation by MaxPreps — won for the 10th time in 11 games.
Grapevine scored twice in the bottom of the first, as Sammy Kelley led off with a single and later scored on a passed ball. Jarett Boswell walked in that inning and scored on a wild pitch.
Boswell homered leading off the sixth, and Texas A&M pledge Gianni Corral added a two-out RBI double later in the inning.
Celina 3, Texarkana Pleasant Grove 1: Brady Broeckel pitched a three-hitter and struck out six as Celina won Game 1 of a best-of-3 Class 4A Region II semifinal series. It was the 13th straight win for Celina (35-5), ranked No. 2 in the state in 4A.
Celina took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second, scoring twice with two outs. An RBI double by Ethan Delgado scored Spencer Coon, and Delgado scored on a single by Zack Henderson.
Pleasant Grove got a solo home run from Spencer Browning in the third, but Celina regained a two-run advantage in the fifth as a two-out RBI double by Coon made it 3-1. Broeckel retired 13 of the last 14 batters he faced after Browning’s home run, with the only base runner for Pleasant Grove in that stretch reaching on a two-out walk in the fifth.
Bridgeland 4, Rockwall-Heath 3: Weston Riddle bunted into a fielder’s choice that scored Caden Hinze with the winning run in the top of the seventh as Bridgeland tied the best-of-3 Class 6A Region II semifinal at one win apiece. Rockwall-Heath, ranked No. 6 in the state in 6A, will have its season on the line in Game 3 at noon Saturday at Concordia University.
Hunter Bulin and Drew Smith hit back-to-back singles for Heath (34-8) with one out in the bottom of the seventh, but a popout and flyout ended the game.
Bridgeland took a 1-0 lead on an RBI single by Myles Syptak in the top of the first, and Rockwall-Heath tied it in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly by Caleb Hoover.
A two-out error allowed Bridgeland to score a run in the third for a 2-1 lead, and Benji Barrera added an RBI triple in the fifth to make it 3-1.
Rockwall-Heath tied it 3-3 by scoring two runs with two outs in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI single by Austin Owens and a bases-loaded walk to Alex Cooley. Heath had a chance to take the lead after that but left the bases loaded.
Tomball 5, Rockwall 2: The state’s second-ranked team broke a 2-2 tie with three runs in the bottom of the sixth and completed a two-game sweep of the Class 6A Region II semifinal series in Lake Belton.
Tomball is ranked No. 4 in the nation by MaxPreps, and sophomore Karson Reeder pitched a complete game while working around seven hits and four walks. LSU signee Cade Arrambide was 3-for-3 with two RBIs for Tomball while falling a triple shy of the cycle.
Rockwall (27-12-2), ranked No. 9 in the state, took a 1-0 lead on a two-out RBI single by Tristan Raley in the top of the first and extended the lead to 2-0 in the second when Hudson Holt led off with a double and scored on a bunt single by Pearson Riebock. Arrambide hit a solo home run for Tomball in the third, and a sacrifice fly by Gehrig Heckathorn in the fifth tied it 2-2.
Coleman Ryan singled with one out in the sixth, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Sam Houston State signee Braeden Scherzer to give Tomball a 3-2 lead. Sam Houston State signee Keegan Demmer hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2, and Arrambide added a two-out RBI single.
Fort Worth Boswell 6, Richardson Pearce 1: Xander Thacker homered and Mason Bell pitched a five-hitter as Boswell tied the 6A Region I semifinal series at one win apiece. Game 3 is scheduled for noon Saturday at Denton Guyer.
Tyler Sessions accounted for the only Pearce run with a solo homer in the sixth that made it 5-1.
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