Jason williams
But on Saturday, the third pitch was the charm for Seguin hurler Brad Reiley. Reiley, who had been mixing up fast balls and curve balls for six innings, resorted to the split-finger pitch to get the Matadors out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the sixth inning, which ultimately led to a 7-5 victory over Churchill in the championship game of the Boomer Jones Tournament at “Smokey” Joe Williams Field at Fairgrounds Park.
Reiley went the distance to record his first victory on the mound this season.
“After we got that double play [to end the sixth], I knew I could go the distance,” Reiley said. “When I went back on the mound in the seventh, I felt as good as I did at the start of the game.”
With the win, Seguin (4-10) extended its win streak to three games, and successfully defended its Boomer Jones championship from 2007.
Seguin held a 6-4 lead after five innings of play, and Reiley looked as if he was wearing down after Josh Berger and Dustin Aguilar started off the sixth with back-to-back singles before Berger scored on a Clint Sharp double to cut the Seguin lead to one, 6-5, and put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with no outs. A walk to Brooks Friesenhahn loaded the bases with notbody out, and prompted Seguin skipper Curtis Hosek to hold a conference on the mound with Reiley and the infielders.
“I told Brad to try throwing the split-finger pitch because they were starting to have success on his fast balls and curve balls,” Hosek said. “You could tell he was fatigued, but he’s a competitor, and he found a way to get the job done.”
Reiley followed his talk with Hosek by striking out Riley Nipper and forcing Jason Williams, who was 2-for-2 with a walk and an RBI at the time, to hit into a double play.
Williams hit a grounder right back to Reiley, who fired the ball to catcher Kyle Hilsberg for a forceout at home before Hilsberg threw to Colin Longmire at first base for the inning-ending out.
The Matadors added a run in the bottom of the sixth when Ryan Leaf drove in Adam Perry on a sacrifice to give his team a 7-5 lead heading into the seventh.
“The offense really helped me out a lot by giving me run support when I needed it,” Reiley said. “We’re starting to hit the ball a lot better, and we’re gelling as a team now. A win like this is exactly what we need to get on the right track.”
Reiley walked Ryan Syring to lead off the seventh, but Syring was thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice before Reiley struck out Nick Belatier to move within an out of the win. Two batters later, Reiley forced Aguilar to ground out to third base for the final out of the contest.
Seguin got things going early with a three-run first as Chris Martinez led off with a single, moved to second on a Reiley sacrifice and third on a Perry single before scoring on a Kendal Scheel single for the first run of the game. Both Perry and Scheel moved up a base on a Josh Bateman sacrifice before Leaf drove both in with a single to give the Matadors a 3-0 lead.
Three innings later with the score remaining the same, Leaf took the first pitch of the inning from Friesenhahn over the left field wall to give Seguin a 4-0 advantage. The homerun was Leaf’s second of the tournament and second of the season, and it flew over the same part of the left field wall as his grandslam during Thursday’s 16-2 rout of West Campus.
Things got interesting in the top of the fifth as Churchill began its climb back into the game. Colton Retzloff led off with a walk before he was thrown out at second by Reiley on a fielder’s choice which also allowed Aguilar to reach first safely.
Sharp drew a walk before Aguilar scored on an error which also advanced Sharp to third and put Friesenhahn on first with one out. Williams followed with an RBI single to score Sharp, while Syring drove in Friesenhahn with a sacrifice to cut the Seguin lead to one, 4-3.
Another error allowed Williams to score the tying run before Belatier hit into a forceout to end the inning with the score tied at 4.
The Matadors answered in the bottom of the fifth with Ronnie “Bubba” Lawson’s two-out, two-run double which scored Scheel and Bateman to give Seguin a 6-4 lead. Scheel and Bateman led off the inning with back-to-back singles before Friesenhahn was pulled off the mound in favor of Belatier.
Leaf led the Matadors at the plate as he went 2-for-4 with four RBIs. Perry also went 2-for-4 with a double, while Martinez was 2-for-3 with a walk and Scheel was 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.
In Saturday morning’s semifinal round, Seguin beat Holy Cross, 11-4. Josh Greinke picked up his first win of the season with a five-inning performance, and Leaf was 2-for-4 with a pair of two-run doubles to finish with four RBIs.
Seguin opens District 25-5A play on Tuesday when the Matadors host Bastrop at 7 p.m. at Williams Field.