Chargers sweep Palmview as Woodchick reaches career win 200

Chargers sweep Palmview as Woodchick reaches career win 200 Champion to play Leander Rouse starting Wednesday in fourth round

SINTON — Champion baseball coach Ben Woodchick said he feels like the Chargers are playing their best ball of the year and it’s hard to argue with the coach based on the recent results.

Ever since the Zak Al-Arashi home run in the fifth inning against Southwest in Game 3 of their series in the last round, the Charger have outscored their opponents 26-1 in 16 innings.

Champion faced La Joya Palmview last weekend in Sinton and swept the Lobos, 10-1 and 10-0 (6 innings).

“I think we’re playing our best ball at the right time,” Woodchick said.

The Chargers advance to the fourth round or regional finals this week against Leander Rouse, a team they faced in the regional finals in 2023 on their way to the state tourney.

Game 1 is Wednesday, 6 p.m., the second game is Friday, 7 p.m. and a third game, if needed, is Saturday, 2 p.m. All games will be at Buda Johnson.

Woodchick adjusted his batting lineup a bit against Palmview and it paid off after they scored 10 runs in both games against the Lobos. The previous high in the postseason was 6 runs scored prior to last week.

“Our lineup is super competitive and it’s moved around quite a bit throughout the year, so it wasn’t anything new,” he said. “There is always competition and guys that are swinging it better than others week-to-week, so we monitor that in practice and adjust accordingly.”

After a 10-1 win over Palmview in Game 1 on Thursday (see the 5-17-26 issue of the Boerne Star for the game story), the Chargers didn’t take their foot off the gas pedal on Friday and tallied 10 more runs to avoid Game 3.

It’s the first Game 2 the Chargers have won in the playoffs after dropping the second games in their series against Hays and Southwest.

Friday’s contest was 0-0 through three innings, but Champion blew the lid off the game starting in the fourth inning after they scored 6 runs with two outs.

A Cal Isley walk and an Austin Garritano single put two runners on in the fourth to start the inning. Jaedyn Yamaguchi moved them over with a sac bunt for the first out and then Isley scored on a wild pitch.

After a pop up for the second out, Garritano scored on a Garland Whitehead single, and it was 2-0. Blake Ott and Brody Bendele singled, and Bendele’s hit pushed in Whitehead for the 3-0 lead.

Ott’s courtesy runner, Colton Munsell, made it home on a wild pitch and it was 4-0 before Lyndon Austin tripled to bring in Bendele and the score bumped to 5-0 and the Chargers weren’t done.

Leadoff hitter, Owen Kuhl singled and drove in Austin to make it 6-0 to put Champion in charge.

It stayed 6-0 until the sixth when the Chargers pushed in 4 more runs to close it out. A fielder’s choice and an error put Bendele at second with one out.

Kuhl singled again and Bendele made it home for the 7-0 lead. Later in the inning, a bases-loaded walk to Garritano made it 8-0.

A fielding error by Palmview on a Zak Al-Arashi hit allowed courtesy runner Jaxson Denman and Isley to score, and the Champion lead was 10-0, kicking in the mercy rule since it was after the fifth frame.

Champion finished with 10 hits, including the triple from Austin, who scored twice and picked up an RBI. Kuhl recorded 3 hits and drove in 2 runs, Isley walked twice and scored 2 runs, while Garritano singled, took 2 walks, picked up an RBI and scored a run.

Al-Arashi singled and collected 3 RBI, Whitehead singled and scored, Ott singled, Munsell plated a run, Bendele finished with 2 hits, had an RBI and scored 2 runs.

Kuhl went all six innings on the hill and scattered 4 hits on 74 pitches. Kuhl recorded his second straight shutout in the playoffs and didn’t give up a walk or run, while striking out 2.