BUDA — After Boerne Champion rallied to win Game 1 over Buda Hays on Thursday, Chargers head baseball coach Ben Woodchick said he knew his team was in for a fight against the Hawks despite being up 1-0 in the series.
The Chargers are three-time district champs, but Woodchick said once the playoffs start, it doesn’t mean a whole lot.
“We knew we had to play good to finish these guys off because they’re talented, they’re well coached and they don’t care who we are,” he said. “Nobody cares that we won district because it’s the playoffs.”
Sure enough, Hays took Game 2 on Saturday at home, 8-6, to force a decisive third game later that afternoon. In the win-or-go-home Game 3, the Chargers prevailed over the Hawks by a single run, 2-1, to advance.
Champion (29-5-1) advances to the second round where they’ll face Southwest (29-2) in a best-of-three series at Northside Field 3. Game 1 is Thursday, 7 p.m., and Game 2 is Friday, 7 p.m. A third game if needed will be Saturday at noon.
Game 3 Champion 2, Buda Hays 1
The Chargers scored both of their runs in the third inning and then held on for the 2-1 win.
In the third, Lyndon Austin singled to start the inning and moved to second on the ground out by Owen Kuhl. Cal Isley walked to put runners at first and second with one out.
Austin Garritano came through with a single to score Austin for the 1-0 lead. From there, Garland Whitehead laid down a sacrifice bunt that scored Isley and the Chargers were up 2-0 before the Hawks turned a double play to end the inning.
It stayed at 2-0 until the Hawks scratched for a run in the fifth. A single from Ryder Pearson, a sac bunt and a wild pitch put Pearson’s courtesy runner Cayden Bergen on third. He later scored on a ground out and it was 2-1.
Hays had a chance to tie it in the seventh and had a runner at third with two outs, but Charger reliever Isley ended the game with a strike out.
Both teams recorded five hits in the evenly-matched contest. Blake Ott doubled, Austin singled and scored, Isley walked and scored, Kuhl singled, while Garritano and Whitehead hit RBI singles.
Brody Eisert picked up the win from the mound and went six innings. Eisert gave up 5 hits, 1 run, no walks and struck out one on 67 pitches.
Isley entered in relief in the seventh and retired the side on 15 pitches. He didn’t give up a run or walk as neither Charger pitcher walked a batter in the entire game.
Game 2 Champion 6, Buda Hays 8
The Hawks jumped out to a 7-2 lead by the third inning with 4 runs in the second and 3 in the third, while the Chargers plated single runs in the second and another in the third.
Champion fought back and answered with a 4-run inning in the sixth to make it a one-run game.
Cal Isley, Austin Garritano and Garland Whitehead walked to load the bases. After a strike out, Zak Al-Arashi was hit by a pitch to score Isley and keep the bases juiced.
Blake Ott came up and quickly unloaded the bases with a triple to bring in Garritano, Whitehead and Al-Arashi and it was 7-6 with only one out, but the Hawks recorded the next two outs at the plate to end the threat.
Ott’s courtesy runner Jaxson Denman tried to score on a Jaedyn Yamaguchi grounder but was tossed out on a play at the plate.
Lyndon Austin singled and moved Yamaguchi’s courtesy runner Patrick Hall to third. Hall tried to score from there and was out at home as well.
The Hawks picked up an insurance run in the sixth to give themselves some breathing room. The Hawks had runners at second and third with two outs and the runner at third scored on a wild pitch to make it 8-6.
In the seventh, the Chargers went down in order with a ground out, fly out and a strike out.
Again, just like in Game 3, both teams finished with 5 hits and 4 of Champion’s 5 hits went for extra bases. Ott hit the 3-RBI triple, Al-Arashi doubled and brought in 2 runs, while Austin Garritano and Cal Isley both doubled.
Austin singled, Garritano scored a run and picked up an RBI, Isley plated 2 runs, Whitehead walked twice and scored a run, Brody Bendele walked and scored once and Al-Arashi scored a run.
Owen Kuhl started on the hill and went 2.1 innings and gave up 4 hits, 5 earned runs, 3 walks and struck out one. Parker Davis finished out the game and yielded a hit, a run, 2 walks and fanned 6.
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