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Baseball: Dragons fall one win short of state
By Justin Thomas, jthomas@starlocalnews.com
FORT WORTH -- Seven times during the playoffs Southlake Carroll's baseball team was one loss away from seeing its season end only to emerge victorious and keep their state-title aspirations alive.
The eighth time, however, was not to be.
Carroll's bid for a trip to state came up short Saturday as the Dragons fell in Game 3 of their regional finals series against Arlington Martin, 5-2, at Lupton Stadium on the campus of TCU.
"[Martin] earned it," said Larry Hughes, Carroll head coach. "They outplayed us in two out of three games. They pitched better than us overall and really just outplayed us. They made a few more plays and had some timely hits."
Larkins allowed six hits and a pair of unearned runs while striking out 13 Dragons to earn the win. Martin never trailed in the game and led by as many as four runs midway through the contest.
With everything on the line, Hughes had a short leash, using four pitchers on the night, including Tyler Alexander. The Dragons ace who, was injured earlier in the playoffs, returned to strike out six Warriors in 2.1 innings of relief. Sean Thompson, Austin Tyrone and starter Ben Leeper also toed the rubber for Carroll.
"We pitched OK," Hughes said. "You saw I had a quick hook tonight and we didn't really have a choice. And our guys knew that coming in; we couldn't afford to give anything away, but then we ended up giving some things away defensively.
"Tyler got released two days ago and we were saving him for the end of the game where he could go as long as he could. We wanted him for the fifth inning on, which is what we got, and he did a great job."
Both teams had defensive issues in the fourth as Martin scored three times in the top half of the frame despite recording just one hit. The Warriors took advantage of three Carroll errors to increase their lead to 4-0.
"Those were big errors," Hughes said. "We just didn't make the plays that we've been making. We made them Thursday but not tonight. That's what it came down to. They made the plays in two of three games and we didn't. They pitched better in two out of three games than we did."
But Martin repaid the favor in the bottom half, firing the ball around the field and helping the Dragons to two runs of their own. Hayden Zier and Quinn Brankin reached on singles to open the inning for Carroll and, with nobody out, Martin's catcher attempted to pickoff Zier by throwing behind him at second. However, the throw hit Zier's helmet and caromed into centerfield. A subsequent throwing error allowed Zier to score and pinch runner Daniel Eurich to advance to third. Chris Altimont followed with a sacrifice fly to cut the Martin lead in half at 4-2.
Leeper opened the contest on the mound for the Dragons and recorded seven outs before being lifted after the Warriors put runners at second and third following a tailing double to right by Matt Waller. Thompson got Carroll out of the jam unscathed, however, inducing a foul pop to third baseman Kenny Hill before getting cleanup hitter Mitchell Peck to line out to left for the final out the frame.
The Dragons had their chances to score early, getting a pair of runners on base in each of the first three innings, but were unable to push across a run. Larkins got a strikeout to end the first, a strikeout with one out and runners on the corners in the second before inducing a grounder to the pitcher, and consecutive strikeouts with two on and one out in the bottom of the third.
"It's tough to leave those runners," Hughes said. "But you have to give their pitcher credit. The umpire had a wide zone and that's why we were taking fastballs off the plate. Then we're down 0-2 in the count and that really set up his slider. But a lot of that was the pitcher. He did a great, great job."
Martin wasn't going to let Hill beat them either, walking the Dragons' slugger intentionally with first base open in both of his first two plate appearances before striking the cleanup hitter out in his final two plate appearances.
The Warriors struck first in the top of the second thanks in part to some key hitting from the bottom of their lineup. Third baseman Collin Day -- who had three of Martin's six hits and scored a pair of runs -- reached with two outs on a single to left before coming around to score on a double to left by Collin Lawrence.
Defense again cost the Dragons in the top of the seventh when Martin tacked on an insurance run courtesy of an error, this one a throw on a stolen base attempt at third that allowed the runner to score and put the Warriors in front, 5-2.
Despite the loss, it was a successful campaign for Carroll.
What was an inexperienced team gained seasoning throughout district play and, despite losing its ace early in the postseason, still rallied to come within one game of advancing to state for the first time since 2008. Hughes admitted that he might not have seen the deep run coming.
"I'm a little surprised," he said. "When you lose your ace pitcher, you have to feel like that. But you have to have people step up and we did. (Greg) Maisto had been stepping up and then he really filled that No. 1 role; he handled it. Our guys hit in Midland and we pitched well in the playoffs. Just not as much here in this series."
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