After two days of baseball, nothing’s been settled in the Region I-5A quarterfinal series between Abilene High and Wylie.
Playing in front of standing-room-only crowds Thursday and Friday at McMurry University’s Walt Driggers Field, the Eagles and Bulldogs split the first two games of the high-profile crosstown affair, with WHS taking a weather-suspended Game 1 by a 6-1 margin and AHS responding with a 7-5 victory in Game 2.
Those outcomes, both arrived at Friday due to Thursday’s opener being stopped by lightning in the top of the seventh inning, mean the first all-Abilene playoff meeting since 1996 will go to a decisive third game, giving local fans one more chance to pack Driggers Field for a winner-take-all matchup at 7 p.m. Saturday.
“Hats off to (Abilene High), they did a great job competing,” Wylie coach Grant Martin said. “I thought we did come back, but we made too many mistakes. We had too many walks early that led to some runs, but they drove them in.
“We fought back and had a chance there at the end, and I’m proud of the kids for that. We just have to show up (Saturday) ready to go.”
After Abilene High was shut down by Wylie junior Brady Gay in Game 1, the Eagles found their backs against the wall in Game 2. And coach Brad Harman’s squad played like a team desperate to extend its season.
The Eagles gave ace Brady Bennett a 5-0 lead just 1½ innings into the game and led the rest of the way, twice fending off Wylie rallies that pulled the Bulldogs within a single run.
That response was pleasing to Harman, whose Eagles are set to play their second Game 3 of the playoffs after dropping Game 2 to Plainview in the bi-district round.
“When we came out and finished the first game, as soon as it was over, that was probably our shortest team meeting of the year,” the AHS coach said. “We just said, ‘Look, our goal at this point is just to make sure we’re playing (Saturday).’
“These kids came out and we had a fast start, which was great. Brady threw a lot of strikes, but offensively we had the fast start and that kind of set the tone. They grinded their way back in — we knew they were going to. They’re an unbelievable baseball team. They’re well-coached, so we knew this thing was going to go down to the wire and be a fight. But I’m just extremely proud of our kids and their grit.”
The Eagles got off a to a dream start, taking advantage of some uncharacteristic wildness by Wylie starter Brady Clark and the first of six Bulldogs errors in a three-run first inning.
Jamison Castel followed one-out walks by Bennett and Beckham Paul with a two-out, two-run double to open the scoring before coming around himself on an RBI single by Camp Churchill.
And things went from good to better for the Eagles in the second inning, when Paul chased Clark with an RBI double and Castel added a run-scoring single to increase the AHS lead to 5-0.
From there, the game settled down some for Wylie as reliever Graham Andrew provided some stability on the mound and the Bulldogs began clawing their way back into the game.
Martin’s squad broke through for its first run off Bennett in the home half of the second on an RBI single by Jace Tomlin, before adding two more runs in the third on an RBI double by Colby Garrett and a run-scoring groundout by Collin Bruning.
Down 5-3 at that point, Wylie pulled within a single run on Tye Briscoe’s fifth-inning sacrifice fly. But the Eagles broke a three-inning scoring drought in the sixth, using two singles and a Wylie error to load the bases for Game 1 starter George Ferguson, who singled to left to stretch the lead back to two runs at 6-4.
The Bulldogs trimmed the deficit back to one in the bottom of the sixth, when Hudson Tuley was hit by a pitch, advanced to third on an AHS error and scored on a wild pitch. But the Eagles answered with another run in the seventh on yet another error by Wylie, and Bennett and Connel Colley combined to pitch a clean bottom of the seventh to close out the victory.
Bennett went 6.2 innings to earn the win, allowing five runs (just two earned) on six hits and one walk with seven strikeouts. He outdueled Clark, who lasted just 1.1 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on two hits and three walks.
“That’s what he does,” Harman said of his ace. “He’s just a competitor in everything he does. He’s not perfect by any means — he’ll miss a spot or miss a pitch — but he works his way out of every bind he ever gets in. He doesn’t get worked up. If we boot a ball behind him, he goes to the next pitch.
“He’s just a bulldog. And when he’s on the mound, our team knows we’re going to have a shot.”
Game 1 was a different affair altogether, as Gay dominated the Eagles for 5.2 scoreless innings to put his team in position for a sweep on Friday.
The junior right-hander allowed just three hits while using four strikeouts to pitch around four walks.
“He’s been great,” Martin said of Gay. “He threw excellent (Thursday) for us. For him, he’s been doing that all year.”
Ferguson matched Gay zero for zero for the first three innings, but Wylie broke the game open with a three-run fourth, getting RBI singles from Garrett and Tuley in the inning. The Bulldogs would add another run in the sixth on an RBI single by Tuley to make the score 5-0, which it stayed until play was halted by lightning in the top of the seventh.
When the game resumed Friday, Wylie added a sixth run on an RBI single by Garrett, before AHS finally got on the board in its final at-bat when Trey Simpson followed a Paul double with an RBI single.
While the Eagles’ comeback attempt would end there, Harman credited that run-scoring sequence with kick-starting his offense for Game 2.
“l just felt like it loosened things up,” he said. “I felt like (Thursday) night in Game 1, we were just tight. So to come out and do that early, even though we didn’t come back and win it, just felt like it kind of took a little weight off the shoulders.”
Thanks to AHS’ series-evening win in Game 2, both the Eagles and Bulldogs find themselves in the same situation heading into Saturday.
And both teams are approaching the win-or-go-home scenario in similar fashion.
“It’s a series and it was a wonderful setting again tonight,” Martin said. “Again, it’s whatever team shows up and is ready to go (Saturday). That’s something we talked to our kids about, and our kids will rebound. Hats off to Abilene High and what they did. We just didn’t have it tonight. Hopefully it’s a different story (Saturday).”
Added Harman: “The biggest mindset is to relax and just play. Don’t make more of it than it is. It’s going to be another unbelievable environment. This environment the last two nights has been great. It’s what we expected. It’s awesome for Abilene and we’re going to get out here and do it one more time.”
REGION I-5A QUARTERFINALS
GAME 1
WYLIE 6, ABILENE HIGH 1
| 123 | 456 | 7 | — | R | H | E | |
| Wylie | 000 | 301 | 2 | — | 6 | 6 | 3 |
| Abilene High | 000 | 000 | 1 | — | 1 | 5 | 2 |
Brady Gay, Colby Garrett (6) and Kooper Jones. George Ferguson, Casen Kilmer (7) and Rylan Stokes. W — Gay. L — Ferguson. 2B — Abilene High: Beckham Paul.
GAME 2
ABILENE HIGH 7, WYLIE 5
| 123 | 456 | 7 | — | R | H | E | |
| Abilene High | 320 | 001 | 1 | — | 7 | 8 | 3 |
| Wylie | 012 | 011 | 0 | — | 5 | 6 | 6 |
Brady Bennett, Connel Colley (7) and John Miles Wagstaff. Brady Clark, Graham Andrew (2), Garrett Salada (6), Collin Bruning (7) and Kooper Jones. W — Bennett. L — Clark. S — Colley. 2B — Abilene High: Jamison Castel, Beckham Paul; Wylie: Colby Garrett.
Records — Abilene High 22-14-1; Wylie 29-6.