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The Dripping Springs High School Tiger baseball team has been busy playing in three tourneys and is now well into district play.
The Tigers started the season with a good supply of experience and young talent. Five starters returned, including a top notch pitcher in the form of sophomore Taylor Tracey. In district play, he has struck out 38 batters in 16 innings.
The Tigers have the talent to stay in the thick of the district race all season. To keep a team with one good pitcher from saving that pitcher for only the best teams that a round-robin schedule would allow, the district schedule calls for playing a team twice in the week.
District play remains underway with the Tigers carving out a 3-1 record against Austin and Bowie High Schools.
The first game with Austin featured a bunch of zeros on the board. No one scored until the sixth when the Tigers used two walks, HBP, error and three hits to cross the plate five times in the 5-0 victory. The two Tiger pitchers threw a no-hitter and struck out 18 batters. Getting the six hits for the Tigers were Tracey 2, Mason Ashlock 2, Landon Requard and Theo Howard. Tracey pitched six innings, walking only one with his 15 K's. Jaxon Conover covered the seventh with 3 K's.
Because of a tourney schedule, the second game with Austin was spread out enough that Tracey was able to pitch. This time more hits and runs as the Tigers won 5-4. Both scored in the first with Tracey hitting a triple and Ashlock bringing him in with a single. The Tigers scored the difference in the fifth inning, and both teams scored three in the seventh. Hits came from Tracey 3, Howard 2, Ashlock 2 and Gavin Hoel. Tracey started: 5IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, IW, 11K; Ryland Mahoney pitched the sixth, striking out 2. Conover finished the game giving up 4H, 3R, 3ER.
Bowie jumped out to a 10-0 lead after three innings while DSHS scored single runs in the fifth and seventh innings to drop the 10-2 decision. Hitting: Tracey 3, Hoel, Ashlock, Mahoney, Howard. Cooper Rummel, Travis Mora and Price Donatiello took the mound.
The next night, Bowie made the trip to Tigerland for the rematch. It would match two of the best fireballers in the district. Both teams had no-hitters until the fifth when Jack Tyndall tripled to straight away center to bring in Requard, a courtesy runner for Hoel. The Tigers also loaded the bases in the sixth. Mahoney relieved for the final two. His charge was to preserve the 1-0 nohitter. This is where Yogi Berra's saying “It Aint Over Til Its Over”comes in. He got the first two out and walked the third. The next batter hit a sharp ground ball down the third base line that was fielded near the outfield grass by the third baseman. With no chance to stop the infield hit, he uncorked the throw anyway that ended up hitting the dugout wall and bouncing away down right field. Everyone gave chase, and the runners were off with nothing on their mind but scoring. The throw was to Hoel, and he got to the plate just as the runner was sliding. Hoel's tag came a foot before the plate. Game over.
Hill Country Invitational results: Alamo Heights 7-0; Rockwall 0-10; Hutto 1-10; New Braunfels High 1-1; Vandegrift 1-8. Comal Tourney: NB Canyon 2-3; San Marcos 1-0; Jordan 6-5; SA Madison 9-1; SA Johnson 8-8. Keith Tuck Invitational: Waxahachie 3-0; Smithson Valley 0-3; Sinton 2-5; Stony Point 2-5.
