But then again, there’s a reason the Tigers have won 22 games and counting.
Senior right-hander Jacob Phillipe was almost untouchable through four innings, and Shane Hoelscher and Cameron Arnett both homered as Belton took care of business with a 5-1 victory over Killeen Ellison in a District 13-5A baseball game at Eagle Field.
By disposing of the Eagles (3-21 overall, 1-8 in 13-5A), the Tigers (22-3, 8-2) kept alive their hopes for a district title heading into Friday’s home game against league-leading Bryan (21-2, 9-0) - a 2-1 winner over College Station A&M Consolidated on Tuesday.
“I couldn’t get Bryan off their mind, but it helped that Ellison played as well as they did,” said Belton coach David Tidwell, whose squad lost 4-0 at Bryan last month. “You like it when a team plays hard and makes the plays like they did. They rose to the occasion and played hard against us.
“You need those kind of games because from now on - from our last two regular-season games into the playoffs - they’re all going to be like that.”
Phillipe (5-0) was in control from the start. With a fastball that tailed away from right-handed hitters, he rang up a pair of strikeouts to end the first inning, then struck out the side in the second.
After Ryan Bates and Joseph Torres singled to start the fourth, Phillipe fanned the next three Eagles and finished with nine strikeouts. He gave way to Nick Wright with two outs in the fifth after yielding a single and a walk, hitting a batter and throwing a wild pitch that let in Ellison’s only run.
“Jacob threw a great four innings, and then Nick came in and did his job,” Tidwell said. “Jacob’s fastball really moves. We don’t even spot his fastball. We just call it down the middle and then hope it ends up in a good place.
“He probably has the nastiest stuff on the staff. We’ve just been working with him on consistency.”
Belton opened the scoring in the fourth when Paul Wilson singled and later scored on Arnett’s bloop hit into shallow center field, and the Tigers widened the gap in the fifth.
Speedy Buck Lopez stretched a single into a double before Hoelscher curved a home run just inside the foul pole in left to make it 3-0.
It was Hoelscher’s second homer in as many games at Eagle Field. He homered into a similarly strong breeze there last season as a freshman.
“The time called for it. Both times we needed something to get us going,” Hoelscher said of his ability to go deep at Ellison’s park. “I was looking for a pitch to drive and I got it.”
Wright put the Eagles away in order in the sixth and seventh, and the Tigers padded their lead in both innings.
Arnett homered for the second straight game - this time a solo shot to right in the sixth - and Dillon Newman doubled to the wall in left-center to drive in Lopez and chase Ellison sophomore right-hander Cal Somerville in the seventh.
“I thought their sophomore pitched really well against us,” Tidwell said. “We hit a lot of balls hard, and they made the plays on a lot of them.”
Belton has already secured a playoff berth, its 18th in the last 20 years.
For the Tigers to have a shot at the league crown, they must beat Bryan on Friday and Consolidated in their district finale Monday and hope the Vikings drop at least one of their final two games next week.
“We’ve got a good stretch of games before the playoffs start, and that’s the way I like it,” Tidwell said. “We still have a chance to be the top seed, so that’s what we’re still shooting for."
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
