Friday, April 19, 2024
Bralen Veazey struck out 10 batters and Gatesville racked up nine hits as the Hornets rolled to a five-inning 10-0 mercy-rule victory over Jarrell on Monday.
After losing his sophomore pitching season due to injury, Veazey looked healthy against the Cougars. He walked two batters in the first inning and gave up back-to-back singles in the third inning, but was virtually untouched throughout the rest of his four innings of work.
Veazey struck out the side in the second and third innings and had two strikeouts in the first inning and the fourth inning. All 10 of his strikeouts were swings and misses.
“He looked good for his first outing. There were a ton of swing and misses so that is a good sign that he had pretty good stuff (on Monday),” GHS head coach Chase Smith said. “As good as he was last night he is only going to get better. It’s exciting having him back.”
The Gatesville offense put four runs on the scoreboard in the first inning but did it on just one hit. Kason Herbelin and Lawson Mooney opened the game with walks and both advanced a base on a passed ball. A balk scored Herbelin to make it 1-0 and moved Mooney to third. He scored on a sacrifice fly from freshman Brady James to make it 2-0.
Veazey and Mason Mooney then drew consecutive walks and Veazey later scored on a passed ball to make it 3-0. A line-drive double from Grant Erwin scored Mooney to make it 4-0 after the first inning.
Gatesville batted around in the second inning and added another six runs in the frame. The Hornets opened the inning with five consecutive hits.
Sean Aguilar and Herbelin both singled to start the inning and Aguilar later scored on an error to make it 5-0. Herbelin scored on a Lawson Mooney triple to make it 6-0 and James scored Mooney with a single to make it 7-0.
Veazey singled again and Mason Mooney reached on an error to load the bases and James came in to score and make it 8-0 on a sacrifice fly from Justin Johnson.
After John Ibarra singled to load the bases once again, Aguilar singled to center to score Veazey and Mooney to make it 10-0.
“We also were hitting the ball the opposite way pretty well and took what they gave us. I think our bats will keep getting better and our guys are slowly getting more aggressive and comfortable taking the extra base and stealing third base at any given time which is going to make opposing pitchers pretty uncomfortable when we get people on base,” Smith said.
Aguilar and James each had two hits and two RBI while Herbelin, Lawson Mooney, Veazey, Erwin, and Ibarra each had one hit each. The Hornets drew five walks in the game with just one strikeout.
Defensively, the Hornets made just one error in 17 total chances. Smith said that shutouts by both the varsity and junior varsity (6-0 winners) were the highlights of the night.
“I liked that our JV and varsity didn’t give up any runs. That’s been a big emphasis for us focusing on pitching and defense. Our pitchers threw well and when you strike guys out it always helps the defense look better,” he said.
Gatesville opened play in the Salado Tournament on Feb. 23 against Killeen, then faced Troy and Gateway Prep on Feb. 24. They will wrap up the tournament with a rematch against Jarrell on Feb. 25.
Both Jarrell and Gateway Prep are members of District 24-4A, whom the Hornets and their 23-4A counterparts will matchup with in the bi-district round of the playoffs.
“It’s nice getting some games against Jarrell and Gateway who we could possibly match up with in the playoffs.”
