But it wasn’t enough to slow down the ninth-ranked Flatonia Bulldogs.
Flatonia erased an early deficit with a seven-run fourth inning to rally past Granger 9-6 and sweep the Class A Region IV baseball championship series on Saturday at Fireman’s Park.
Flatonia (24-5-1) advanced to the state tournament Friday and Saturday at Dell Diamond in Round Rock.
Granger, the undefeated District 27-A champion, made the deepest playoff run in program history. The Lions finished 23-10.
“These guys are amazing; they did it all,” a somber Granger third-year coach Stephen Wisdom said. “They’re an incredible group of guys. They made a heck of a run at it.”
After Granger suffered its first playoff loss in a five-hit shutout Thursday night, Wisdom challenged the Lions to relax at the plate and put the ball in play.
Granger did just that early on.
Mike Holly and Alec Wade each had one-out singles and shortstop Dylan Barbiaux drew a walk to load the bases in the top of the first inning. Holly scored when Chaston Kubacak reached on an error and Wade came home on a fielder’s choice to give the Lions a 2-0 lead.
The Lions added to their lead with a bang in the fourth. No. 8 hitter Ethan Gehrke singled, then advanced to third on an errant pickoff throw at second. He came around to score on Stephen Brosch’s single to make the lead 3-1. Gehrke was 3-for-4 with an RBI.
Two batters later, Holly took the second pitch he saw over the left-field fence for a 340-foot home run for a 5-1 lead. Holly, a senior catcher, finished 2-for-4 with two RBI.
Despite facing elimination, Wisdom sensed that his team was more relaxed Saturday afternoon.
“They were a little unfocused Thursday night,” Wisdom said. “They knew what they had to do tonight and they came out and swinging the bats and did a tremendous job. They gave it everything they had.”
While Granger’s offense finally regained its pop, pitcher Kenny Sifuentes and the defense spent the early part of the game desperately trying to protect the lead.
Sifuentes, a right-handed junior, had worked himself to trouble in each of the first three innings but managed to escape with limited damage.
He got out of a bases-loaded jam in the third thanks to a spectacular diving catch by Barbiaux, who flipped the ball to second base for an inning-ending double play.
But after walking the first two batters in the fourth, Sifuentes never recovered. He gave up a pair of singles, including a two-run hit to right that cut the lead to 5-3. That single ended the day for Sifuentes, who allowed five runs, six hits and four walks in four innings.
Reliever Jason Finn didn’t fare much better, walking the first two batters he faced, one of which forced in a run. In its next three at-bats - a pair of doubles and a groundout - Flatonia turned a 5-4 deficit into an 8-5 lead.
Flatonia did its seven-run damage on just four hits. But the four free bases issued by Granger pitching were too tough to work around. All four batters who walked came in to score.
“Four walks, that does it every time,” Wisdom said. “You can’t come out of something like that. In several games we’ve had one bad inning and it hurt us.”
Granger had been aggressive on the base paths throughout the playoffs, but a few plays that didn’t pay off likely cost the Lions three runs that would have tied the game.
Gehrke was caught not paying attention at third base in the second and was tagged out at home after a rundown. A groundout by Brosch two pitches later likely would have scored Gehrke.
With Granger desperately needing runs to rally, Barbiaux was caught at second base trying to stretch a single into a double in the sixth. That out ended the inning with a runner on third.
In the seventh, OJ Gonzales, a pinch runner for Kubacak, was thrown out at home plate while trying to score on a wild pitch.
Those types of moves helped the Lions reach the regional finals for the first time, but the gambles didn’t go Granger’s way this time around.
“They knew they could do it,” Wisdom said of his players. “They knew they could play with these guys.”
The loss ended the high school careers of seven Lions - Brosch, Gehrke, Holly, Gonzales, Wade, Pierce-Murrah and Stephen Pustejovsky, five of whom were starters.
“I couldn’t be prouder,” Wisdom said. “It’s utterly amazing. They took me on a ride and I enjoyed every second of it."
rschneider@temple-telegram.com
