The Wildcats couldn’t build on their second win of the season, falling 6-5 in eight innings to Keller in their final game of the day.
“We’re just having to work hard to get a win right now,” Temple coach Larry Haynes said.
Lock, a Temple College signee, allowed just three hits to earn his first victory of the season in the Wildcats’ first game of the three-day tournament.
“He had total command of their hitters,” Haynes said. “He was pretty dominant.”
The Wildcats trailed McCallum 3-1 entering the seventh inning despite Lock’s strong performance. Temple scored twice in the seventh and Parker Brown scored the winning run on a single in the eighth.
Temple had a 2-0 lead in the second inning against Keller but left the bases loaded. That was a chance, Haynes said, to take control.
“We missed an opportunity at a big inning,” he said.
Temple tied the game at 3 in the fifth inning after a run-scoring double by Nich Crosswhite but allowed Keller to score one run each in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
The Wildcats (2-6) play at Cedar Park at 3:30 p.m. today and at Leander at 7:30.
Belton falls to Waco Midway, beats Grapevine
GEORGETOWN - The Belton Tigers had their six-game winning streak snapped in an 8-5 loss to Waco Midway before defeating Grapevine 9-3 at the Georgetown First Texas Bank Invitational.
Belton (7-2) fell behind 4-0 in the first inning against Midway, then rallied for a 5-4 lead. The Panthers scored four runs in the top of the seventh to take an 8-5 lead before the Tigers’ rally was halted in unusual fashion.
Belton had runners on first and second and one out when a Tigers player hit a fly ball over the shortstop. According to Belton first-year coach Eddie Cornblum, the umpires never called the infield-fly rule, which would have meant the play was dead and only the batter was out.
But Midway’s coach yelled for the infield fly, causing the baserunners to hold as the ball fell in play. The Panthers fielded the ball and recorded a double play to end the game.
In Game 2, the Tigers fell behind Grapevine 3-0 after three innings before scoring two runs in the fourth and seven in the fifth. Nick Wright improved to 2-0 and Garret Vail went 3-for-4.
“We go down 4-0 in the first game, but we don’t quit,” Cornblum said. “I thought it was a gutsy performance and showed a lot about our character.
“(In the second game) we were trying to get past that loss, but we fell behind 3-0 and wound up winning 9-3. That showed a lot.”
Justin Dechert had four hits on the day.
Belton plays at noon today against Wylie and at 7:30 against Georgetown, which lost to the Tigers 1-0 on Tuesday.
