Buckeyes fall to Pleasant Grove

The Gilmer Buckeyes ended their season Saturday when they lost to Pleasant Grove 6-0 after splitting the first two games in the series, 3-8 and 10-3.

Pleasant Grove continues in the baseball playoffs in area competition while Gilmer closes its season with a 21-7 record.

“I am proud of the season,” Coach Joey Hector reflected on the year. “Anytime you win 21 games that’s a good year.” “I am disappointed with the first round exit,” he continued. “Maybe we used all our gas in winning the Gladewater series.”

Jud Murry finished the series on the mound, his first time to pitch since an injury during spring break. “We are going to miss the leadership that he provided,” Coach Hector mused. Clint Ward and G.J. Kinne also finished their careers at Gilmer.

The first game of the series proved critical to the final outcome. Certainly the key play in the game in Texarkana Friday came in the bottom of the fifth inning when Hunter Goodman got a double for the Hawks when there were two outs and two strikes to the batter.

Pleasant Grove had scored in each of the first three innings, but the Buckeyes had closed the gap with runs in the third and fourth innings to trail 3-2.

Dustin Hardin scored the first run after reacihing on a single, and Brennan Thompson turned his fourth inning single into a run on Paul Chesnut’s fielder’s choice to the shortstop.

Justin Fielden put the Hawks down in order in the bottom of the fourth, but Gilmer could not add a score in the fifth. After Goodman’s double, Casey O’Banion was hit by a pitch and Rylan Stephens walked to load the bases.

Andrew McElhaney then cleared the bases with a game winning triple give the Hawks a 6-3 lead. Singles by Kaleb Brown and Jake Rogers added two more runs for an 8-3 cushion.

After two errors and five runs, Hector replaced Fielden with Colton Shaver who shut down the potent Hawks. Chesnut scored Gilmer’s third run in the sixth after walking. Jake Ashley’s single gave the speedy Chesnut a chance to run the circuit for the score.

In the first of the two games played at Gilmer Saturday, Ashley took the mound. He gave up two runs in the first, three in the third, and one in the sixth before he was relieved by D. J. Stanley after Stephens When the Hawks got careless starting in the second inning, the Buckeyes took every advantage they got.

Kyle Bowden was the first of four Buckeyes to walk, he advanced on a wild pitch, and scored on an error. A second error in the inning allowed Paul Chesnut to turn his single into a score.

After Hunter Harrison, Ashley, and Dustin Varnado reached on errors and walks, Garrett Adkins hit a double to log three RBIs and to give Gilmer a 5-2 lead.

Bowden and Chesnut reach on a single and a double respectively before Justin Fielden cleared teh bases with a single. Gilmer had a 7-5 lead going into the fourth inning. Thompson turned a single and a wild pitch into the game winning run at 8-5.

Two walks, a hit by Adkins and walks to Murry and Thompson allowed Harrison and Ashley to complete the Gilmer scoring at 10-5 in fifth.

The Hawks came up with one run in the sixth and Stephens single in the seventh before Stanley came to the mound. An error on the Buckeyes led to the final Hawk run.

In the third game, Michael Wacha took the mound.

“He was Pleasant Grove’s fourth best pitcher,” Hector said after the game, but he was able to shut down the Buckeyes. The Hawks turned two singles, a passed ball and a single to score the first two runs in the second inning.

Rogers increased the lead to 3-0 in the third by converting a walk, a passed ball and an error into a point.

A wild pitch allowed Brown to score in the fourth, while Beau Gay used a single, a stolen base and Rogers’ double to increase the lead to 5-0.

It was two errors and a wild pitch that brought O’Banion home in the fifth.

“We allowed 12 stolen bases in three ball games,” Hector said, summarizing the results. “Pleasant Grove did a good job of base running.”

“There were times during that series when we had two freshmen out there, and we usually had two sophomores. Combined with five juniors, we have a good squad coming back next year,” Hector concluded as he left the office to watch the young T-ball players working out on the Buckeye practice field.



Mirror Photo / Mary L. Kirby

SENIOR JUD MURRY finishes the job on the mound as the senior entered the final Buckeye game against Pleasant Grove in relief.