SAN ANTONIO – Last week’s second-round series between Boerne Champion and Southwest was tooth and nail through the first two games that were decided by one run after the Chargers took Game 1 (2-1) and the Dragons won Game 2 (4-3).
Game 3 on Saturday kind of had that same feel, and the teams were tied at 0-0 until the fifth inning when Zak Al-Arashi broke it open.
Al-Arashi launched a 2-run homer and that opened the floodgates for the Chargers team that went on to win the decisive third game, 6-0.
Champion advances to the third round and faces La Joya Palmview in a best-of-three series at Sinton. Game 1 is Thursday, 7 p.m. Game 2 is Friday, 5 p.m., and a third game, if needed, will follow the second game.
Chargers coach Ben Woodchick said his team was hitting the ball well on Saturday, but most of them were deep fly balls to the outfield that were caught by Southwest until Al-Arashi blasted his homer over the right-center field fence.
“Their plan was to play us deep in the outfield and let us bang it around and they would run under it,” he said. “We had to keep plugging, they threw enough strikes and played great defense to where we were going to have some big hits. They weren’t going to give it to us and we finally got that out of Zak and we followed that up with a double and the pipe kind of finally opened up a little bit.”
Al-Arashi said he liked the pitch he saw.
“He threw me a fastball, middle- in, a little low, and I was able to step back and turn on it,” he said. “I was expecting a middle-away, but I reacted and spun on it to hit a homer.”
The 2-0 lead marked Champion’s largest lead of the series, but the Chargers blew it open in the sixth with 4 more runs.
Cal Isley walked to start the sixth and then Austin Garritano doubled to score Isley and it was 3-0. Garritano moved to third on a ground out and then Brody Bendele was hit by a pitch to put two runners on.
Lyndon Austin came up to bunt and the SW catcher fielded the ball and threw to third to try and get Garritano, but the throw went into the outfield and both Garritano and Bendele scored and the lead jumped to 5-0.
Austin moved to second on the errant throw and later scored. Jaedyn Yamaguchi, who doubled in the fifth, singled in the sixth to bring in Austin, and the Chargers were on top, 6-0 going into the sixth.
The Dragons still had to bat in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings and put two runners on in the sixth but didn’t score as Charger pitcher Owen Kuhl went the distance and hurled a complete-game shutout.
Kuhl scattered 5 hits, only walked 1 batter and didn’t give up a run, while striking out 1.
Kuhl had been the Game 2 starter last week, but Woodchick moved around his rotation and was hoping to use Kuhl in the closer role, but plans changed.
“If we were going to nail it home, I wanted him as the stopper guy in Game 2 and if it didn’t come to that, then here he is waiting in Game 3 as a guy that’s been doing it for us,” he said.
Game 2 Champion 3, Southwest 4
A late rally by the Chargers in Friday’s Game 2 came up short, and the Dragons prevailed, 4-3, to even their series after the Chargers took the first game, 2-1.
Southwest struck for a single run in the first for the 1-0 lead and then pushed in 3 runs in the fourth with 3 singles, a sac bunt and a Charger error and it was 4-0.
Champion started to rally in the fifth after Jaedyn Yamaguchi started off the inning with a double. Owen Kuhl walked and then a Lyndon Austin sac bunt moved the runners to second and third with one out.
Austin Garritano ripped a single to centerfield to score Yamaguchi’s courtesy runner, Jaxson Denman and Kuhl, and it was 4-2 with only one out, but the next two Charger batters were retired with a line out to the pitcher and a pop up to right field to keep it a two-run game at 4-2.
In the seventh, Cal Isley was hit by a pitch and scored on a Brody Bendele double, and it was 4-3. After a ground out for the second out, two Chargers walked to load the bases after Kuhl was intentionally walked and then Austin took a walk.
The Chargers had the tying run at third and the winning run at second but the next Champion batter hit a pop up to end it.
Brody Eisert started on the hill and went 3.1 innings. He gave up 5 hits, 2 earned runs, didn’t walk a batter and fanned 4. Parker Davis pitched the final 3.1 innings and scattered 2 hits, didn’t give up a run, walked 1 batter and sat down 4.
NOTES: All three games in last week’s series were at Sotomayor High School or NS Field 3, and the visiting team won all three games. SW was the home team in Game 1 and the Chargers prevailed. Champion was the home team in Game 2 and the Dragons won and then SW was the home team on Saturday and the Chargers won.
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