1-0
series lead
Sawyer Smith tossed a gem in Thursday’s Game 1 opener against Mission Sharyland and helped pace the Chargers to a 2-1 victory.
Game 2 was Friday afternoon, and a third game, if needed, will be Saturday, 1 p.m. The entire series will take place at Cabaniss Field in Corpus Christi.
Smith walked one batter and only gave up one hit, a double in the second inning to Sergio Ibarra, who ended up scoring the Rattlers’ only run.
In the second, Ibarra jumped on the first Smith offering of the inning and doubled to centerfield. The next batter, Luis Balderas, laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Balderas to third.
Luis Cienfuegos came up and hit a grounder to second baseman Andrew Harrison. Balderas broke for home and Harrison threw to the plate, but the throw was off, and Balderas was safe to make it 1-0.
After that, Smith retired the next two batters to end the inning and then mowed them down in order over the next five innings for 17 straight outs.
Of the 17 straight batters retired, only two came via strikeouts as Smith let his defense work behind him.
Sharyland’s 1-0 lead held from the second until the fifth when the Chargers tied it. With one out, Sam Miller hit a hard grounder to Ibarra, the Rattlers’ first baseman, who misplayed the ball to allow Miller to reach safely.
Miller’s courtesy runner, Patrick Hall, moved to third on an Austin Garritano single up the middle. With runners at the corners, Sharyland tried the hidden ball trick where the third baseman actually had the ball, while the pitcher was on the mound and pretended he had it.
Hall took a lead off third and was tagged by the third baseman, but it was not allowed since the game was still in a timeout, according to Chargers coach Ben Woodchick.
Eventually, a passed ball that didn’t get too far away from the catcher Cienfuegos allowed Hall to score from third because the catcher couldn’t locate the ball.
Later in the inning, Garritano was at third and tried to score on an AJ Grizzaffi grounder to shortstop Santiago Balderas but was thrown out at home to keep it at 1-1.
It didn’t matter in the end because the Chargers pulled ahead in the sixth. Jaedyn Yamaguchi singled to start the inning.
Garland Whitehead came up and doubled, to move Yamaguchi’s courtesy runner Caiden Cruz to third.
At that point, the Rattlers intentionally walked Aidan Smith to load the bases with one out in hopes of turning a double play, something Sharyland did twice in the first three innings.
Sawyer Smith came up and helped his cause with a fly ball to right fielder Diego Chapa, who ran a long way to make a play and got his glove on the ball but dropped it, allowing Cruz to score from third to give Champion its first lead of the game.
Chapa did manage to throw out the runner moving from first to second for the second out.
From there, Sharyland pitcher Fabrizio Salinas retired the next Charger batter with a pop up to end the inning, but the damage was done, and the Chargers were leading 2-1.
The game went to the seventh and Sawyer Smith didn’t let up. He induced a ground out to third base for the first out and got the next two Sharyland batters to pop up to the outfield to end the game that only took about 90 minutes to complete.
The only walk Smith gave up occurred in the first inning when he walked Rattlers’ pitcher Fabrizio Salinas with one out.
Salinas’ courtesy runner was picked off after getting in a run down for the second out and then Smith got the next Sharyland hitter to pop up to retire the side, which means he faced the minimum number of batters in six of seven innings.
Salinas gave up 5 hits, the double to Whitehead, plus singles to Owen Kuhl, Yamaguchi, Aidan Smith and Garritano.
Champion is 28-8 after Friday’s win.
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