OVERTON TAKES GAME ONE WIN | Leads Burton in best-of-three; series win sends Mustangs to state title game

EDITOR’S NOTE: Statistics coming.

HUNTSVILLE – One win away.

That’s what Overton High School is after beating Burton, 8-5, on Wednesday night at Don Sanders Stadium, here on the campus of Sam Houston State University.

The two programs are playing a best-of-three-game series in the University Interscholastic League’s Class 2A, Division II playoffs, and it’s the state semifinals. The season is very much over for the loser. The winner will advance to the ultimate opportunity: the state championship game on June 5, a 9 o’clock start that day at Dell Diamond in Round Rock against either Stamford or defending state champ Collinsville.

Overton, now 30-7 and with five wins in a row, can wrap the series with a win in game two – that’s Thursday at 4 p.m., back at Sam Houston State. If Burton, though, bounces back and wins game two, then there will be a third and series-deciding game about 30 minutes later.

The Mustangs looked to have wrapped game one before the seventh inning ever rolled up.

Burton, the home team for the game, tied it at 5 in the fifth inning (fittingly), but Overton punched right back in the top of the sixth.

Joey Zalman led off the inning with a hit, got to second, and coach Chris Cook brought in Gabe Miller as a courtesy runner. Jayden Edwards got a hit for Overton, who had runners at the corners.

Officials called Burton’s pitcher for a balk, meaning the runners take the next base. For Miller, that was home plate – the Mustangs got a run off the mistake (6-5 Overton).

Things would snowball for the Panthers, and not in a good way. Bryson Bobbitt was hit by a pitch, and after an out, Brody Brown drew a walk. Edwards stood at third, Bobbitt at second, Brown at first – bases loaded for big-gun Mustang Rylan Holleman.

But as it turned out, Burton’s Reuben Rodriguez hit Holleman, walking in a run (7-5).

Before the inning was over, Bobbitt and Brown pulled off a double steal: Bobbitt took home and Brown safely reached third. That gave the Mustangs an 8-5 lead. The Panthers got out of the situation with out three, and held Overton in check until what would be the game’s final at-bat: Burton’s at-bat in the bottom of the seventh.

Ryder Biggs and Rodriguez helped the Panthers load the bases with no outs. Holleman, who had thrown a good game, came off the mound in favor of Landon Hill. Holleman went behind the plate to catch.

The Mustangs defensively then turned it on, got two outs, and then a pop-up in foul territory was appropriately caught by Holleman for out three – the game-winner.