ANOTHER COMEBACK?! YOU BET! | Overton does it AGAIN, this time in baseball, to beat Beckville, and more in our baseball roundup from Thursday
Talk about incredible wins. Talk about incredible comebacks.
Well, Overton didn’t just talk about it. They DID it.
Again.
Might just have to file a copyright on this comeback thing.
After staging a comeback in football to beat both Mount Enterprise and Mart in two of the most memorable games of the 2024 season, now Overton High School’s baseball Mustangs are getting into the act.
The Mustangs had two big District 19-2A showdowns with Beckville this week, and managed to win them both – and both by one run. Thursday’s latest was just wild.
After beating Beckville 5-4 on Tuesday, Overton fans probably thought they’d like a little cushion on Thursday.
They didn’t get it. But they did get a win.
And they had to come back to do it. The Bearcats jumped out to a 3-1 lead, then scored three more in the fourth inning. Beckville at one point led 6-2, then 11-2 after five innings!
But when it looked like hope was lost – and believe us, it did, as Overton trailed 11-3 going into the seventh – here came the Mustangs, roaring back in the seventh to score NINE RUNS.
Beckville, looking befuddled, committed three errors and could not answer, not a single run, in the bottom of the seventh, and lost the game, 12-11.
Overton, now 21-6 overall, is 9-2 in District 19-2A play and has won seven straight. The Mustangs have two games left in the regular season, both against Elysian Fields: they’ll play at EF on Tuesday, a 4 p.m. junior varsity start, then at home with JV first on Friday.
In Thursday night’s incredible win, Overton finished with 10 hits. Rylan Holleman had three of ‘em, all doubles, and 3 RBI. He also scored twice. Landon Hill had two hits, one of them a double, an RBI, and scored twice.
Braxton Harper had a double and an RBI, and scored a run. Joey Zalman had a hit and an RBI. Bryson Bobbitt had a hit, an RBI and scored a run. And Brody Brown, Bryce Still and Jayden Edwards all each had a hit. Brown scored three runs, Still scored two, and Edwards, one. Mason Rowe had an RBI.
Rowe, Brown, Still and Hill each had a stolen base.
For Beckville, Baker Seegers had another big night, again on the losing end: 2-of-4 with a double and 3 RBI. Aiden Harris went 2-for-3 with a triple and an RBI. Braxton Bullock had the biggest night of all: 3-of-5 with 5 RBI in the losing effort.
Hill and Still pitched for the Mustangs. Still went four innings, with eight runs allowed (seven earned) on seven hits, walked eight and struck out one. Hill pitched three innings, allowing three runs, all earned, on nine hits, with four walks and four strikeouts.
Seegers went two innings for Beckville, allowing nine runs (two earned) on three hits and four walks, and struck out two; Reed Chapman pitched five innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on three hits and five walks, and struck out three.
Leverett’s Chapel
Also in District 19-2A, Leverett’s Chapel baseball had to shuffle a few things because of this weekend’s regional track meet.
The Lions were to play a road game at Union Hill on Friday. That game has been moved to Tuesday instead. It’ll be a 5 p.m. game.
A home game against Avery on Tuesday has been canceled, as a result.
The home game scheduled for next Friday against Miller Grove, senior night for LC, will take place, as planned.
District 16-4A
For the Gilmer Buckeyes to have a chance at making the UIL Class 4A playoffs, they absolutely have to win their last two games of the season and then have chaos happen across District 16-4A.
One piece of that puzzle happened Thursday night, as the Buckeyes did their own part, getting a 1-0 win over Kilgore in Gilmer, as the entire district – and pretty much all of the high school baseball and softball teams in East Texas – played games a night early instead of playing on the Good Friday holiday.
The top four teams from each district make the playoffs, and as it stands right now in 16-4A, Gilmer is on the outside looking in, by one spot – but by two games.
Spring Hill is 13-0 in the district with a win over Chapel Hill on Thursday night. Second-place Carthage was upset by Henderson, 6-5, and Carthage dropped to 10-3 in its district record as a result, but remains in second place.
With the loss at Gilmer, Kilgore and Gilmer split the week, and Kilgore is 8-5 in the district standings, and so is Henderson. Technically, they’re tied for third, but one would be third place, and the other fourth – the Buckeyes are still two games back, at 6-7.
There’s one game left in the regular season, and that sends Gilmer to district-leading Spring Hill on Tuesday. Kilgore will play at Carthage. Chapel Hill plays at Pine Tree, where there are no playoff implications. And Henderson hosts Cumberland Academy.
Gilmer 1, Kilgore 0: In Gilmer on Thursday, the game went to extra innings, in a scoreless tie.
With an out in the books, Kolton Hale – who had already played in the regional tournament for Kilgore in golf this week – drew a walk. The Buckeyes picked up out No. 2, but then the Diamond ‘Dogs advanced Hale to second with a single by Cason Edney to right field. Gilmer would get out of the inning, though, on the next at-bat, and the game advanced to the bottom of the eighth, still scoreless.
In the bottom half of the inning, Chevy Edwards led off with a single, and went to second on a but by Aiden Davis – Davis did it right, laying it down in front of him so that pitcher Tanner Beets had to come and throw him out. Beets did his job, getting Davis out, but Edwards advanced to second with an out in the books.
Dillon Griffin followed with a single to left that moved Edwards to third, and then he scored the winning run on a single to left by Brendan Darnold.
Kilgore finished with four hits: Beets, catcher Joseph Hendrickson, Edney, and Miles Applegate, all singles. Gilmer’s hits were also all singles: two by Griffin, and one each by Darnold and Edwards.
Beets went the distance on the mound, walking none, allowing just the one run on the four hits, with five strikeouts, and counterpart Ryder Lange did the same: four hits allowed, walked three and struck out three – two very good pitching performances.
District 16-3A
Troup and Tatum are battling it out for the top seed in this district, and now there’s only one game left in the regular season, coming up Tuesday night, after Thursday’s results.
Troup (19-6 overall) played at home Thursday and got the 10-0, run-rule win over Sabine, moving the Tigers to 9-2 in 16-3A. And Tatum (18-6) also played at home, holding off White Oak, 6-5. Tatum is also 9-2. Troup does hold the edge, with head-to-head wins.
On Tuesday, Troup closes the regular season at home with Arp – the junior varsity game starts at 4:30, varsity afterward. Tatum will also be at home, closing the regular season district schedule against Sabine; that’ll also be a 4:30 p.m. JV start.
The Eagles do have two more non-district games on their schedule, both next weekend, and both at home: against Palestine Westwood, a 7 p.m. start, on Friday, April 25 (alumni night), and a 2 p.m. start on Saturday, April 26 against Bullard.
Also on Thursday, and we’ll have information on this game later today, but West Rusk defeated Arp, 15-4. According to their schedule, the Gladewater Bears were off.
On Tuesday, Gladewater will visit West Rusk, JV at 4:30 p.m., and that’s the final game on the Bears’ regular season schedule. It’s also the final game on the regular season schedule for West Rusk.
White Oak has an open date on Tuesday, so it looks like the Roughnecks have already played their final regular season game.
Troup 10, Sabine 0: After a scoreless first inning, the Tigers brought in four runs in the second, three in the third, two in the fourth and got a run in the fifth to complete the run-rule, and wrap up the game.
Troup had 10 hits. James Pierce had two of them, both doubles, and an RBI. Pierce also scored twice. Logan Lockey had one hit, a big one: a 2-run home run.
Also for the Tigers, Carson Davenport, Caden Graves, Caden Switzer, Carter Graves, Conner Smith, Kash Hardy, and Conner McCartney each had a hit, and Davenport, Caden Graves and Hardy each had an RBI; Switzer and McCartney each had 2 RBI.
Braxton Barton had a stolen base for the Tigers.
Davenport and Hardy handled pitching duties for Troup. Davenport went three innings, holding Sabine hitless and scoreless, and struck out seven, facing nine batters. Hardy did allow two hits, but walked no one, and had two strikeouts.