Five fingers means the fifth round for the LCM Baseball team after a dramatic 8 inning win against the Jasper Bulldogs. And the fifth round means the Region Final and one step away from the State Tournament.
JAS 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0- 4
LCM 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 1- 5
Weather won for two days postponing the one-game series between the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears (23-10) and the Jasper Bulldogs (27-6). Saturday night the skies cleared and the Battlin’ Bears made it clear they are a team to be reckoned with in the state baseball playoffs. LC-M rallied to tie the game three times before winning in walk off fashion in the eighth inning 5-4 at Don Gibbens Field. The win puts the Bears in the Regional Finals next week.
Coming to bat in the bottom of the eighth Little Cypress-Mauriceville had never led in the game. The top of the batting order Drake Trawhon was up first and ripped a double in the right center field gap. The first pitch to the next batter Vinny Hale got away from the catcher advancing Trawhon to third with the potential winning run. Jasper elected to intentionally walk Hale and Mitchel Lee to load the bases in order to setup a force out at home plate. Instead it forced in the winning run when Michael Lee took the next pitch square in his back giving him first base and bringing Trawhon home for the victory.
It was a truly climatic ending to a game that was filled with drama throughout and a full house of fans at Don Gibbens Field. Each time the Bulldogs seemed to be taking control of the ball game, the Bears would answer that they were not ready to go home for the season.
Jasper scored in the second using a hit by pitch of its own. With two out Zayne Delay and Tiger Williams both singled. Tyler Ruiz reached on an error to load the bases and keep the inning alive. J. J. Justice was then hit by a pitch from Bears’ starter Mitchel Lee that drove in Delay from third.
An inning later the Bulldogs went up 2-0. John McMillon led off with a single to right field. Dalton Bennett hit a potential double play ball that the Bears failed to turn as the throw to first after the force at second was wild allowing Bennett to go to second. Ben Stover laced a double down the left field line to score Bennett with the second Jasper run. LC-M got a line out to first baseman Slade Green which he turned into an inning ending double play.
The Bears were hitless against McMillon through two innings. In the bottom of the third Hale reached on an error by the shortstop. That brought up Mitchel Lee. There have been some dramatic homeruns by the big Bear this season. With the count two balls, no strikes Lee struck again sending a McMillon fast ball over the left center field fence to tie the game at two.
Brother Michael followed with a solid single to left field. Peyton Choate walked before Truman Franklin flied out to deep right to end the inning with the score tied 2-2 after three.
Lee had pitched well for four innings, but seemed to tire in the fifth. After Choate made a good play to retire the leadoff Bulldog, McMillon got ahead in the count and was intentionally walked. Lee walked the next two Jasper hitters to load the bases with one out. Reese Durand hit a long fly to center that Trawhon made a sensational catch of as he bounced off the fence just to the right of the Don Gibbens Field logo. The catch probably prevented a bases clearing double, but Jasper took the lead again on the sacrifice fly 3-2.
When Lee walked Delay to reload the bases he was relieved by Christian Fusilier. Lee pitched 4 2/3 innings yielding three runs, but only one was earned. Fusilier only faced one batter and struck out Williams to end the top of the fifth with three Bulldogs on base.
The Bears answered in the bottom of the fifth. Mitchel Lee walked on a 3-2 pitch to start the inning. Cameron Parker was sent in as a courtesy runner. Michael Lee bunted trying to sacrifice Parker to second. Third baseman Justice fielded the ball in time to get the force at second, but his throw pulled the second baseman off the bag and both Bears were safe. Grant White slapped a beautiful bunt to the left and past the pitcher’s mound. McMillon fielded it, but in his hurry to get a force out at third base threw the ball away. Parker came in to score the tying run and Michael Lee went to third with no outs.
McMillon bore down and got outs against the next three hitters. The key play was Justice redeeming himself with a nice play that retired Lee on a hard grounder to third with the infield in.
Coach Steve Griffith brought Green in to pitch the sixth for LC-M. Justice lined a single down the left field line with one out. Dustin Foshee put the Bulldogs back on top 4-3 with an RBI-double to the left center field fence. Foshee went to third when the throw home was errant trying to get Justice. McMillon was walked intentionally. The Bears turned another inning ending double play on a grounder that went to Hale at short to Choate at second and to Lee at first.
For the third time LC-M responded to tie the score in the same inning that Jasper had tallied in the top half of the inning. Trawhon worked the fifth walk of the night off of McMillon sandwiched between strikeouts 10 and 11 by the big Bulldog righthander. Jasper did not want to tempt fate again so Mitchel Lee was walked intentionally. Little brother Michael came up big lining a soft liner into right field that hit just in front of Williams. With two outs Trawhon was running and scored to tie the game 4-4.
White followed with a single as well to right, but Mitchel was held at third. That was all for McMillon on the mound. He and Justice switched positions. Justice struck out Choate to end the inning.
Jasper put two runners on base in both the seventh and eighth innings. With Bulldogs at second and third in the seventh Green got a grounder to Hale who made the play to retire the side. In the eighth runners were at first and second with two outs when Stover lined a drive to right field that off the bat looked like it had trouble written all over it. Franklin the right fielder got a great jump on the ball and had no problem hauling it in to spoil the Jasper threat. That set the stage for the Bears’ dramatic finale in the bottom of the eighth.
Up next Little Cypress-Mauriceville will face the Robinson Rockets in the Regional Finals. The Rockets staged a late comeback to beat the Bridge City Cardinals 6-5 Saturday night at the University of Houston. The winner of the series between LC-M and Robinson earns a ticket to Austin for the state finals in two weeks.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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