BASEBALL & SOFTBALL PLAYOFF UPDATES | WR wins game one; WO slips; everyone plays Friday
It’s cliché, but West Rusk’s baseball Raiders just refuse to lose.
Seriously.
The Raiders took out New Diana, traditionally strong in baseball, in round one of the University Interscholastic League (UIL) Class 3A playoffs, the bi-district round, and now they’re threatening to sink Dekalb in round two, the area round.
In fact, they’re halfway there.
West Rusk beat Dekalb, 6-3, on Thursday night at Marshall’s Maverick Field, and Dekalb hurt their own cause: four errors in game one of the best-of-three-game playoff series.
The Raiders, with a 17-11-1 overall record this season, haven’t lost a postseason game yet. They swept New Diana and they’ll look to do the same to Dekalb Friday night in Marshall.
Game two has had a slight change, though: the new start time is 6 p.m.
If a third game is needed, it would be Saturday at 2 p.m. Dekalb would have to win the second game to make that happen.
West Rusk, coached by Tyler Willbanks, took a 1-0 lead with a run in the second inning when Kullin Tavarez scored on one of those errors (he had gotten on base with a single). The Raiders added four more runs in the fifth. It was a walk-fest: as in, the Raiders had the bases loaded with a single by Garrett Sipes and two walks, and built that 1-0 advantage into a 5-0 blanking.
Dekalb tried to make a comeback with two runs in the sixth and a seventh-inning run, but the Raiders held on for the win.
Cole Jackson got the win, going six innings, with four strikeouts and giving up just one hit to Dekalb. Xander Mason finished off the game on the mound. Ty Harper, Jackson, Darren Nix and Tavarez, each had an RBI in the game. Harper and Sipes each had two hits.
The winner of this series will play the winner of the Tatum-Winnsboro series in the next round, the regional quarterfinals, next week. Tatum leads that series, one game to none, after beating Winnsboro, 5-1, on Wednesday night (Our story: EAGLES SOAR IN GAME 1 | Tatum trails early, then beats Winnsboro, 5-1; hosts game two Friday (etblitz.com)).
Game two of the Tatum-Winnsboro series is Friday at 5 p.m. at Tatum; if Winnsboro beats Tatum in game two, there would be a third game, immediately following game three, also (obviously) at Tatum.
Two ETBlitz.com-area softball teams are also still in the postseason, and the UIL softball playoffs are a week ahead: they’re in round three already.
White Oak suffered a setback in its UIL Class 3A playoff run on Thursday night, unfortunately for the Ladynecks and their fans, a 4-2 game one loss to Mount Vernon at Grand Saline.
Game two will be Friday night, back at Grand Saline, a 6:30 p.m. start, and game three, if it’s needed, would be Saturday, also at Grand Saline, at 2 p.m.
Mount Vernon has won 15 straight games; the Lady Tigers’ last loss was in March. They defeated Atlanta in round one of the playoffs, a sweep, and Jefferson in the area / second round.
Coach Ninevah Blankenship’s White Oak Ladynecks have won 16 of their last 18. They swept Tatum in the bi-district, or first, round. It’s important to note that the Ladynecks did lose game two of the second-round series with Hooks, then bounced back to beat them in game three to win the series.
The winner of the White Oak-Mount Vernon series moves to next week’s regional semifinals (round four) to face either Rains or S&S Consolidated, a school in Sadler, in the Sherman/ Denison area.
Overton’s Lady Mustangs haven’t begun their third-round (regional quarterfinal) series yet in the UIL Class 2A playoffs, but they will on Friday.
The Lady Mustangs will play Cross Roads in a best-of-three series at Tyler Legacy on Friday at 6 p.m. Game two is Saturday at 4 p.m. at Legacy. If a third game is necessary, it’ll be 30 minutes after game two ends.
Overton beat Martin’s Mill in the first, or bi-district, round, and defeated Bowie in the area round. The winner of the Overton-Cross Roads series will face either Timpson or Shelbyville in the regional semifinals next week.