In 16 combined innings against Magnolia’s baseball team, A&M Consolidated had just two hits with both coming on Friday night at Tiger Field.
The Tigers only needed one in Friday's contest as Dalton Cordray’s RBI double in the ninth ended it as the District 21-5A leaders rebounded for a 1-0 victory over the Bulldogs.
Consol (15-4-1, 7-1) was no-hit in Tuesday’s matchup, resulting in its first loss in district.
The senior came up to the plate with a runner on first and a plan to bunt. After a foul attempt, a swinging strike and a ball, the plan changed and Cordray had the green light to swing away.
“It felt amazing,” Cordray said. “I walked up there knowing what I’m going to do here. [Coach] gave me the bunt and I didn’t execute that, but I knew I had to do something to win us the game.”
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Cordray did just that as the ball rocketed toward the wall in left field and courtesy runner Lane McGuire raced around the bases. The throw to home was a few seconds behind as McGuire slid home. McGuire entered following a leadoff hit by pitch to Brad Boedeker.
“The second it left the bat, man I knew he was going to get home,” Cordray said. “That ball was roped.”
Cordray’s bat may have been the hero, but his glove was also part of a dazzling defensive effort to stay in the game. Whenever the Tigers (16-4, 8-1) got in jams, the defense found a way to escape. One of the most glaring examples came in the top of the third as Magnolia nearly plated a run.
The Bulldogs (16-7, 5-4) led off the third with back-to-back singles before a fielder’s choice put runners on second and third. Another fielder’s choice followed but this time the throw went home as third baseman Nathan Hodge connected with catcher Trey Walker to save a run from coming in.
Plays like that were made all over the field and throughout all nine innings. In the fourth, a hard liner to second baseman Will Hargett was snatched out of the air and caught before he flipped it to Boedeker at first to complete the inning-ending double play.
Even as late as the eighth saw heads up plays. Magnolia had a pair of singles sandwiched around a strikeout which chased Consol starter Michael Pozzi. The Tigers put in Owen Horrell and the first batter he faced hit a hard grounder toward third forcing Hodge to dive for it and then crawl toward the bag to get the runner out.
“Our defense was absolutely lock down,” Cordray said. “I’ve never seen it this good before.”
The outfield and infield’s effort was matched by the pitching staff. On 103 pitches, Pozzi struck out three while walking one, hitting one batter and giving up five hits. In 1 1/3 innings, Horrell struck out two on 23 pitches.
“Those two guys were outstanding,” Consol head coach Ryan Lennerton said. “Michael just battled the entire game, he was outstanding [with his] three pitch mix for a strike and then Owen coming out of the bullpen filled up the strike zone and overpowered them. They both just did an amazing job and just gave our offense time. We needed a lot, but they gave it to us.”
Pozzi and Horrell were in a pitchers’ duel as Magnolia’s duo of starter Keegan Campbell and Elliott Burrows matched them. Campbell worked 4 2/3 with one strikeout and four walks. Burrows had two strikeouts, one walk and two hits, including the first in the sixth courtesy of Walker.
“That’s a really, really good pitching staff,” Lennerton said. “We got no-hit [on Tuesday], so we got two hits in the whole series. They just have a lot of depth, and they didn’t even throw one of their better arms at us. But that’s what this district is made out of is good arms and good hitters and they’re going to beat some teams."
The Tigers host Montgomery Lake Creek at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
“First place is nice but top four is important,” Lennerton said. “There’s teams that are bunched up and so if we can keep pace or [stay] slightly ahead of those other teams, it’s a big deal. We got some giants coming up too, so any win is big.”