GONZALEZ, WHITEUS HAVE BIG NIGHT | Tatum gets past West Rusk in game one; series continues Friday
RUSK – Cooper Whiteus went 3-for-4, scoring twice, and Dustin Henigan drove in a couple of runs and scored another as Tatum opened its Region II quarterfinal best-of-three playoff series with a 6-1 win over West Rusk at the Rusk Sports Complex on Wednesday evening.
Tatum and West Rusk are from the same district (16-3A). So, they’re very familiar with each other. The Eagles had won the district, while the Raiders finished fourth behind Troup and Elysian Fields, but had closed the regular season with a win and then swept New Diana and beat DeKalb in a best two-out-of-three series to get another chance at Tatum.
Game two is set for for Bullard’s Brook Hill High School on Friday at 7 p.m. and game three, if necessary, Saturday at noon. The series was originally scheduled to begin on Thursday with all three games scheduled for Bullard, but due to the prospect of inclement weather today, the first game was moved to Wednesday in Rusk.
The change of date and site, didn’t seem to affect either starting pitcher: Tatum’s Carlos Gonzalez or Cole Jackson of West Rusk.
Gonzalez started and went 5-plus innings, collecting his ninth win (9-0) of the season. He allowed only one run on just three hits. He struck out four, but walked five, before Tatum coach Dustin Russell brought in Cayden Tatum in relief to secure the final six outs.
With runners on base, Tatum, the reliever, was the beneficiary of a double play in the sixth inning on a Kullin Tavarez fly ball to Kohen Kiefer in left field and Kiefer’s subsequent throw home to catcher Grant Adcock to retire Jase Reasoner, who had tagged up at third on the catch, to get out of a jam.
Tatum, a left-hander, wound up walking two and striking out one.
Jackson (4-3) pitched 6-1/3 innings before yielding to reliever Jase Reasoner. Jackson allowed five runs on 10 hits, striking out five and walking one.
Reasoner allowed one run on one hit and walked two.
Tatum which had beaten West Rusk twice in district play (7-1 and 8-5) didn’t waste much time, scoring twice off Jackson in the top of the first inning.
Whiteus led off the game with a single to right centerfield. Carlos Gonzalez then reached on a fielder’s choice, and Whiteus scored with one out on a sacrifice fly by Henigan to Ty Harper in right field. Gonzalez crossed with the second run on a single to the outfield by Cayden Tatum.
West Rusk answered, though, with a run in the bottom of the first as Gonzalez walked Jase Reasoner, who scored the run on a hard-hit Harper single.
Leading 2-1 after the first inning, the Eagles added a run in the second as Kody Hines singled, stole second base and eventually stole home.
Tatum added its fourth run of the game in the third inning. With two outs, the Eagles’ centerfielder (Cayden Tatum) tripled to right field and scored on Downs’ first-pitch single back into right field.
The Eagles added a couple of insurance runs in the seventh, getting a leadoff double by Whiteus to go along with a two-out run-scoring double by Henigan off Reasoner, the West Rusk reliever. Henigan advanced to third on a passed ball and scored the final run of the contest on a wild pitch.
West Rusk shortstop Garrett Sipes led the Raiders with two hits, both singles, one of those in the first inning and the other in the sixth. Sipes was thrown out at home on a relay throw from the outfield to second baseman Kody Hines to the catcher Adcock, who made the tag at home for the third out of the first inning.
At one point, Gonzalez, who started the game with a 0.51 ERA, retired nine Raider batters in a row from the beginning of the second inning to issuing a leadoff walk to Xander Mason to start the fifth.
Joining Whiteus with multiple hits for the Eagles were Tatum (2-for-3), and Kody Hines (2-for-3).
The winner of this series advances to meet the winner of the Gunter (32-0) and Edgewood (27-8-1) best two-out-of-three series which is scheduled to begin today in Rockwall and continue Friday and, if necessary Saturday, in North Forney.