Mules vs. River Road Bi-District (5-6&7-2016)

Mules vs. River Road Bi-District (5-6&7-2016)

The young Mule baseball team gained playoff experience and said goodbye to their three seniors Friday and Saturday. The Mules tangled with the District 1-3A champion River Road Wildcats in the best two-of-three Bi-District games.

The Wildcats brought hot bats to Lockney Longhorn Diamond and out hit and out scored the Mules. River Road came back from a 3-0 deficit in Friday’s game to defeat the Mules 16-3.

Saturday afternoon the Mules struggled to get out of the third inning. The Wildcats scored nine runs in the top of the third inning to lead the Mules 16-0. The Mules fought back and held the Wildcats to a single run after that and scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth and three in the fifth.

The Wildcats won the game 17-5 and received the Bi-District gold glove.

Bryce Mauricio took the count full before drawing a leadoff walk to start Friday’s game. Ryan Rodriguez was hit by the first pitch thrown to him. Both Mauricio and Rodriguez advanced on a passed ball.

Jason Florez laid down a sacrifice bunt that scored Mauricio from third base. Danny Campos blasted a ground ball just out of the reach of the short stop for an RBI single that scored Rodriguez from second base.

A throwing error by the pitcher allowed Campos to advance to second base. He then stole third base and came home a second throwing error by the pitcher attempting to pick him off third base. The Mules led 3-0 going into the bottom of the first inning.

The Mules could not push another run across the plate.

River Road sent 10 batters to the plate in the first inning and scored six runs, added three runs in the second inning and seven in the fourth inning.

The Wildcats must have kept their bats in an oven over night because they were still hot on Saturday.

A ground rule double, a walk and a home run jumpstarted the Wildcats Saturday afternoon. The scored four runs in the top of the first inning and added three runs in the bottom of the second inning.

The third inning seemed to go on forever as the Wildcats scored nine runs.

Reese Orozco sent a groundball back up the middle for a base hit to leadoff the bottom of the fourth inning. A passed ball allowed him to go to second base. Jaxon Lee drew a one out walk on four straight pitches. A pitch bounced away from the catcher to send Orozco to third base and Lee to second.

Jacob DeLeon lined a single up the middle to score both Orozco and Lee.

Raul Sierra groundball tied the second baseman hands and he reached on the first base on the error. A wild pitch advanced Sierra to second base. Florez walked and Campos hit into a fielder’s choice that forced out Florez at second and Sierra went to third.

A base hit by Orozco scored Sierra and Campos went to third. Moises Vasquez sent a groundball to the shortstop. The shortstop scooped up the ball and threw to first base but the first baseman allowed the ball to bounce off his glove. Campos and Orozco were both running on the play and scored on the error.

The young Mules could not extend the game. It was the final time Campos, Lee and Mauricio would wear a Mule uniform.