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Last Call: Panthers get hot late, run past Wolves for first district win
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@starlocalnews.com
All it took was a punch in the mouth from a cross-town rival to jumpstart the bats for the Plano East baseball team Friday night.
The result was a last-ditch rally that left Plano West in the rearview mirror, as the Panthers enjoyed a 7-4 victory for their first win in District 8-5A play.
"That's the one thing our program is based on," said Travis Collins, East head coach, "is competition and competing. We want to compete everyday and we've had some games where we didn't do that ... For these guys, tonight was a big step."
Not without a dash of speed mixed in, as junior Nick Ramos led off the seventh stanza with a deep triple that split the right-center field gap.
"[Ramos] runs pretty well," Collins said. "That's the one good thing with him: if we get one to the fence, he'll turn it into a triple. I never have to worry about his effort."
Ramos flexed his speed two batters late after a wild pitch from junior Aaron Draper escaped senior Brandon Gabay and opened the door for the go-ahead run as Ramos scampered home for the score.
The pitch moved junior Ryan Kravik, who walked earlier in the frame, to second. The outfielder advanced two bases further following an RBI double by senior Clark Kahawaii, who went 3-of-4 from the dish, that barely fell fair down the left-field line.
Junior Cooper Sanders plated Kahawaii on an RBI double of his own that was launched well over the head of center fielder senior Anthony Piazza to complete the East rally.
Senior Alex Stuart, who earned the win in relief, sealed the win by retiring the Wolves in order, aided by a diving grab from senior center fielder Sam Lane and two timely stops at second base by sophomore Ryan Rettke.
In victory, Stuart surrendered just one hit over two innings while striking out one after relieving junior Ryan Boucher, who tossed five innings and struck out four.
The lone blemish on Boucher's evening transpired in the sixth inning, where the West bats awoke after going silent through five frames. Consecutive singles driven between shortstop and third base from seniors Toran Tillotson, Draper and senior Austin McDonald triggered the rally, with McDonald's single driving in Tillotson for West's first score.
With runners on second and third, that gave way to junior Billy McKinney, who knotted the count even at 4-4 after launching a three-run homer over the right-field wall.
"To be down 4-0 like that and battle back to tie up," said Don English, West head coach, "those are the kinds of kids we have. They work hard every day and that doesn't surprise me. They're going to fight until the end."
Prior to the four-run, four-hit outburst, the Wolves had just mustered just two base-runners all night following singles from McKinney, who went 2-of-3 with three RBIs, and junior Blake Bruce.
"The defense has gotten better," Collins said. "We started off the year horrendous defensively and have settled in on who's playing where and we've played some good defense in recent weeks."
While East's defense clamped down on the Wolves in the early going, it was defensive miscues on West's end that opened up a 4-0 deficit.
Three of those runs came in the fifth inning after a throw error on a Ramos bunt scored Lane. East added two more runs after an infield fly by Cooper was misjudged by Gabay and fell untouched to score Ramos. An ensuing throw to third base sailed into the outfield, permitting a run scored by senior Jacob De La Cruz to extend East's lead to 4-0.
"There are still obviously some things defensively that we need to tie," English said. "We've been better during the season at some of that stuff but you've got to do it when it counts in these big district ball games."
Kahawaii triggered East's first run after belting a single up the middle in the second inning. Pinch-running senior Matt Wylie did the rest of the legwork, scoring on a sacrifice fly by senior Jacob Boucher.
The run were scored opposite senior Brad Alexander, who gave up four hits and walked one in four innings of work, while senior Zach Troutman suffered the loss after surrendering four runs -- three unearned -- over two innings.
A chance for the Panthers to improve over .500 transpires Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. when they host Allen while the Wolves look to right the ship with a road tilt at Marcus.
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