The Mustang Varsity baseball team entered their second week of action with five games in the Klein ISD Tournament.  The first day of the tournament, which was to be played at Klein, was lost to weather and unplayable fields.  After much deliberation, Kingwood agreed to host their side of the bracket at the friendly confines of Andy Wells Field on Friday and Saturday

On Friday afternoon, the Mustangs opened the tournament against the same team they opened with in the Humble/Kingwood Tournament – the scrappy Westfield Mustangs.  Jimmy Jordan, who shut down Westfield in his previous outing, earned the starting pitching assignment for Kingwood. The hometown Mustangs struck first when Ryan Pope drew a walk in the first inning, advanced to second on a fielder’s choice, and scored on a Dustin Walls’ RBI single to take early 1-0 lead.  Westfield rallied in the third inning with four runs on three hits and two Kingwood errors to go ahead 4-1. Fueled by four consecutive hits, Westfield increased their lead in the third inning to 5-1. But Kingwood battled back in the fifth inning.  Gregg Gossett led off with a double and scored on another double by Ricky Cratty, who had entered the game as new pitcher. Casey Stoub then laid down a perfect bunt single.  With runners at the corners, Michael Hopper drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to close the deficit to 5-3.  Kingwood pushed across another run when Stoub scored on an error to make the score 5-4.  In the sixth inning, Kingwood evened the score 5-5 when Walls walked and scored on a sacrifice bunt and an infield groundout.  Kingwood plated a run in the seventh on a Stoub double and Matt Bardwell’s RBI sac fly, but Westfield also scored on homerun to send the game to extra innings tied 6-6.  Neither team could muster a run in the next two frames and the game was called due the time limit.  The Kingwood Mustang offensive leaders were Stoub (2-4, single, double) and Bardwell (2-4, 2 singles, sac fly).  Cratty held Westfield to one run on three hits and two walks while striking out four in five innings.

After a two hour intermission, Kingwood returned to the ball yard for the chilly nightcap against the Klein Collins Tigers.  Blake Hancock took the mound for the Mustangs and turned in a sterling performance as he allowed two runs, four hits, two walks, and struck out ten Tiger batters in five innings.  Kingwood scored early and often as they pounded out eleven hits in route to a 12-2 rout of Klein Collins in a game that was called after five innings.  The hitting parade was led by Cratty (2-2, homerun, single, sac fly, 2 RBIs), Johnny Whittleman (2-2, 2 doubles, sac fly, walk, 4 RBIs), and Kenneth Negron (2-4, 2 singles, 1 RBI), Pope (1-2, double, 4 runs) and Bardwell (1-2, single, 2 walks).  Ryan Mize pounded a triple while Hopper, Walls, and Kyle Porter each singled.

On Saturday, Kingwood played host to the Katy Taylor Mustangs before entertaining the Nimitz Cougars in a twinbill.  Kingwood’s Justin O’Bannon turned in a masterful three-hit shutout in the first game of the day against Katy Taylor.  He allowed two walks and struck out four in the 3-0 victory.  Kingwood scored two runs in the third inning on an error, after consecutive singles by Gossett, Porter, and Stoub.  They added an insurance run in the fourth on three more Katy Taylor errors to close out the scoring.

In the next game, Hopper took the hill for the Mustangs in the first game of a two game set against the Nimitz Cougars.  The Cougars’ ace, Roy Merritt, held Kingwood to just four singles (Whittleman, Cratty, Walls and Porter) and no runs through six innings.  Down 4-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Mustangs tried to rally.  Bardwell led off with a walk and Walls followed with a single.  After a strikeout and a fly out to centerfield, Kingwood was down to its last out.  E.J. Leal ripped a double to the dead centerfield to score both base runners and cut the Nimitz lead in half at 4-2.  Hopper came to the plate looking for a way to extend the rally, but didn’t look long as he promptly laced the first pitch to rightfield for an RBI single.  With the game-tieing run on first base and the hometown crowd in a frenzy, the next Mustang batter flied out to centerfield and the Cougars had pulled the big upset by defeating Kingwood 4-3.

Kingwood avenged their first loss of the season by drubbing the Cougars 12-3 in the second game of the doubleheader, and their third game of the day.  The Mustangs cruised to the easy win behind the pitching arms of Walls, Zach Tumlinson, Daniel Edwards, and Jonathan Beaty.  The offensive leaders were: Kenneth Negron (3-3, 3 singles, 2 walks), Cratty (2-5, single, double), and Walls (1-3. homerun, walk).  Pope, Whittleman, Mize, and John Rankin each contributed singles in the convincing win.

Kingwood is now 6-1-1 on the season and will travel to Lufkin on March 6-8 for five games in the annual Lufkin Tournament.

By: Todd Porter