Thursday, March 28, 2024

Gatesville baseball inching closer to playoff berth

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Gatesville baseball is heating up at just the right time.

The Hornets put together their most complete game of the district season to take down Salado 3-1 on Tuesday and have won three straight after dropping their first four league games.

In addition to another pitching gem from Bralen Veazey, the Hornets touched up the Eagles’ terrific lefty Logan Flores for seven hits. Veazey struck out 12 and walked one while allowing just four hits and a single earned run.

For head coach Chase Smith, the number of hits weren’t the primary indicator of a good offensive night. It was the location of the hits that pleased Smith as six of the seven Hornet hits were either to centerfield or to the opposite field.

“We weren’t trying to do too much tonight, which has been an issue at times with guys trying to pull the ball. We had an up the middle or go with it away approach and were staying on pitches really well,” Smith said.

The Hornets trailed 1-0 heading into the bottom of the third inning when Lawson Mooney reached on an error then came home on a double to right field by Banner Allman to tie the game at 1-1.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, John Ibarra tripled to right field, then came home on a single to right field from Clayton Gregory to give the Hornets a 2-1 lead. Gregory, a utility infielder who started at third base for the injured Brady James, also walked and played an error-free game.

Gatesville pushed its lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning with an old-fashioned manufactured run. Lawson Mooney singled to start the inning, then promptly stole second base. An error on the play allowed Mooney to take third and he scored on a sacrifice fly to right field from Allman.

“Lawson was flying around when he got on base tonight. It might as well of been a double anytime he was on base,” said Smith. Banner had a really unselfish at-bat and did what he needed to do to score a run from third with less than two outs.”

The insurance run from Mooney turned out to be a bit of security that Veazey wouldn’t need. After giving up three hits and a run in the top of the second inning, Veazey allowed just three more baserunners the rest of the game — with none advancing past first base. In his last two starts – both Hornet wins - Veazey has struck out 21 hitters, allowed five hits, and walked two.

“Veazey had great stuff (on Tuesday). His off-speed stuff was nasty and made it really tough for guys to dig in and get good swings. He looked like he felt confident and trusted his stuff and did a great job for us,” Smith said.

The win moved Gatesville to 3-4 in 23-4A play. Another win over Salado on Friday night would have put the Hornets in the driver’s seat for the No. 3 seed playoff seed from the district.

On April 14, the Hornets rode the perfect pitching of Grant Erwin to a 19-1 win over Waco Connally. Erwin retired all 12 batters he faced and did not allow a ball out of the infield. He stuck out six, got four groundouts and induced two pop outs.

Offensively, nine different Hornets combined for 16 hits in the win over Connally. Ibarra and Justin Johnson each had three hits while Veazey, Mooney, and Allman had two hits each. Gregory, James, Kason Herbelin, and Jacob Ybarra also had hits.

The three-game streak is the longest for the Hornets since a four-game winning streak from Feb. 27 to March 4. Smith said he believes it can be just the start of a longer streak.   

“I think if we play with the confidence and enthusiasm we had all night (against Salado) we can play with anybody and I think their confidence is growing. We have been preaching just keep getting better and let’s play our best baseball when it really matters and it mattered (on Tuesday) and we played like I knew we have always been capable of,” he said.

The Hornets faced the Eagles in a rematch on Friday night then are scheduled to wrap the regular season with two games against Waco La Vega.