Mustangs Ease Past Slaton

by admin

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In a game where routine popups turned into singles, doubles, and in some cases triples caused by 60 plus mph winds the Mustangs came up with two runs in the top of the 7th inning that turned out to be the margin of victory as they defeated Slaton 8-6 in the regular season finale for both teams.

With a playoff spot already secured the Mustangs once again wrapped up a third place finish and will square off against second place Presidio at a place and time yet to be determined. The first round of playoffs for the boys will be the weekend of May 5-7.

The Mustangs jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first inning and added another run in the top of the 2nd for a 5-0 lead. But the Tigers came back with three runs in the bottom of the 3rd to cut their deficit to 5-3.

The two teams traded runs in the 4th and 5th innings to make it 6-4. And in the top of the 7th back to back doubles by James Chatham and Broedy Burris led to two more runs and what looked like a comfortable 8-4 lead. But just like the Mustangs the Tigers came back with a double and a triple for their two runs with no outs in the bottom of the 7th. But starting pitcher Braden McGary settled down mixing up a good curve ball along with some hard throwing fast balls to strike out the last three batters to preserve the win.

McGary had at least one strike in each of the 7 innings and ended with 14 strikeouts. Tiger batters did finish with 11 hits, but each time they started making a run McGary started throwing strikes that stranded 6 Slaton runners, two innings with runners on 2nd and 3rd base. In addition, he had no walks in spite of the gusty winds.

Chatham had another 3 hit game that included a double and two singles and one RBI. Isaac Yanez, Justin Riley and Aaron Villarreal all had 2 hits as the Mustangs finished with 12 hits.

Cameron Garcia, McGary, and Burris all finished with one hit.

McGary got the scoring started hitting a double in the gap in left/center field that plated Garcia who reached base when the catcher missed a swinging strike three. He came home on Chatham’s first hit and after a stolen base he came home when Burris hit his lone single. Then Burris trotted home on a Riley double.

The Mustangs closed out their regular season with a 16-10 record and 5-5 in district play. After it was all said and done the Mustangs played district champion Idalou their closest games losing in Denver City 3-2 and a 6-4 decision in Idalou on a grand slam Wildcat homerun in the bottom of the 7th inning. They also lost an extra inning game to Roosevelt which means they could have ended up tied with Idalou for the district championship.

They will open the playoffs against Presidio next weekend, but as of Press time the place has not been determined.

The junior varsity game was cancelled due to the high winds.

 

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