Clear Springs Chargers 7, Kingwood Mustangs 2   - May 19, 2023 @ The Hill (Barbers Hill)

Kingwood entered Friday night's game at Barbers Hill needing one win to eliminate Clear Springs and advance to round four.  The Mustangs sent David Ward to the mound while the Chargers countered with Tyler Ryder.

After the Clear Springs lead off hitter walked, Ward got two flyouts to Ty Boatright in center before a second walk gave the Chargers two runners on with two outs.  A pop up to Caden Wellmann at second ended the inning, keeping the score at zero.  It stayed that way through one full inning when the Mustangs hitters had a couple of strikeouts and a foul pop to third.

The lead off hitter walked  and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt that Sammy Soto fielded and stepped on the bag.  Another pop up to Wellmann at second left Clear Springs with a runner at second and two outs.  But a double just beyond the reach of Boatright in deep center plated the Chargers first run of the game and the series.  A groundout to Josh Arquette at third closed out the top of the second with Kingwood now trailing 1-0.  Ryder continued as he had in the first inning, again retiring the side with three more strikeouts, two of which were looking.

In the third, the Chargers lead off hitter got things started with a single past a diving at Arquette at third.  Consecutive singles, the first to left centerfield and the second to center, loaded the bases with no outs.  A fouth straight hit, a line drive to right, brought in one run and moved all other runners up, leaving the bases loaded and giving the Chargers a 2-0 lead.  Wesley Lawson was summoned from the bullpen to attempt to put out the fire.  Lawson struck out the first batter he faced and a line drive to Soto, who then tagged the runner next to him for a double play, got the Mustangs out of the jam and kept the score 2-0.  Kingwood finally got a baserunner in the third inning when Soto walked.  He was advanced to second on Liam O'Leary's sac bunt back to the pitcher but a pick off at second and another strikeout meant the Chargers pitcher had faced the minimum nine hitters through three.

Lawson breezed through the fourth with a groundout to Braelon Richardson at short, an unassisted play by Soto at first and a fly ball to Caden Callaway in left.  After a strikeout and groundout to short, the Mustangs broke into the hit column for the first time when Wellmann laced a double over the right fielder's head.  Arquette walked and the two completed a double steal but a strikeout and catcher tag prevented Kingwood from scoring, leaving the game at 2-0.

For the fourth time in five innings, the Chargers leadoff hitter reached, this time on a walk.  A soft single off the bat of their next hitter gave them first and second, no outs.  A groundball to Wellmann, flipped to Richardson at second, gave the Mustangs their first out and put runners on the corners.  A sac fly to left allowed run number three to cross the plate but on the play, the runner on first was thrown out trying to advance to end the inning.  Two more strikeouts and a groundout made for a quick inning for Kingwoo though as they trailed 3-0 through five innings of play.

After a groundout to Wellmann led off the inning, a missile hit toward second allowed the second runner to reach.  A groundout to Arquette, who threw to Wellman at second, retired the lead runner, giving the Chargers two outs and a runner on first.  A single to left centerfield and a walk loaded the bases.  A fly ball was mishandled by the charging left fielder, allowing two runs to score, giving Clear Springs a 5-0 margin.  A grounder to Soto ended the inning there.  With two chances to hit left to whittle at the deficit, the Mustangs again went down in order on a pair of groundouts and one more strikeout.

The lead off hitter in the seventh inning hit a home run to left to extend their lead.  The next hitter lifted a fly ball to right that was dropped, allowing him to scamper into second base.  A groundout to the right side moved him to third.  An infield single up the middle brought in the runner from third to push the score to 7-0.  A wild pitch, moving the runner to second, a deep fly out to center and a strikeout closed things out, leaving the Mustangs in need of seven runs to continue.  With their backs against the wall, Wellmann led things off with a walk and moved to second on Arquette's single up through the hole on the left side.  Braden Fuentes singled to left to load the bases as Kingwood didn't want to go down quietly.  A strikeout was the first out of the inning before Soto walked to force in the Mustangs first run of the night.  Connor Mondev entered for the Chargers to pitch.  O'Leary's fielders choice grounder to short pushed across another run but a grounder to short and stepping on the bag ended the game there with a 7-2 loss.

Ward did not record a strikeout in two innings while Lawson picked up two in his five innings of relief as the Chargers did a very good job of putting the ball in play.  The pair of Clear Springs pitchers had twelve strikeouts on the night.

The Mustangs had their 17 game winning streak snapped with the loss. 

The third round concludes tomorrow at 2pm with the game again being held in Barbers Hill.

Kingwood Mustangs
Overall record:   27-8-3
District record:   13-1
Playoff record:       5-1