Teams head to best of three

Orange County still has four teams representing themselves in the state baseball playoffs.

Orangefield, after a first round bye will play Bryan Rudder in a best of three series at Baseball USA in Houston.

Game one will be Friday at 7 p.m., game two Saturday at 2 p.m., followed by game three (if needed) 30 minutes after game two.

The winner will face West Orange-Stark who received a bye to the third round after their first round victory over Tarkington.

The Bridge City Cardinals will face Taylor in a best of three series at Conroe Oak Ridge.

Game one will be Friday at 7 p.m., game two Saturday at 3 p.m., followed by game three (if needed) 30 minutes after game two.

The winner will face the Navasota/Huffman winner.

The LC-M Bears will play Magnolia in a best of three series.

Game one is Friday at Baytown Sterling at 6:30 p.m., game two Saturday at Texas A&M starting at 2 p.m., followed by game three (if needed) 30 minutes after game two.

The winner will play the Port Neches/San Marcos winner.

‘Cards ‘skunk’ Trojans

The Bridge City Cardinals easily took care of their first round playoff series.

The Cardinals took game one against Coldspring 11 to 0 in a six-inning affair at Summer Creek High School.

The Cardinals belted 14 hits in the contest with the big hit coming off the bat of Joe Robertson.

Robertson led off the first inning with a single, and the fourth inning with a solo homerun.

Three doubles were hit in the game, two by Matt Hicks and one by Evan Boren.

The other nine hits were singles, two from Zach Smith and Mitchel Hubbard, and one each from Forrest Zoch, Luke Rhodes, Matt Menard, Josh LeMoine and Dylan Mulhollan.

Hicks and Hubbard took care of the pitching duties.

Hicks faced 15 batters and struck out nine, while allowing two hits and hitting one batter.

Hubbard pitched the fifth and sixth innings.

He struck out one, gave up a hit, and walked one.

The Cardinals ended the game with a 6-4-3 double play.

Game two was the same for the Cardinals, good pitching and lots of hits to take the series, and the game 15 to 0.

The big hit of the game came off the bat of Dylan Mulhollan, a gram slam homerun.

Matt Menard added a two run shot as well.

Luke Rhodes had a nice day at the plate going three for three, all being singles, and Matt Hicks added two hits, a single and a double.

Evan Boren went two for two, with two singles.

Tyler Roy collected a double, and Colby Carpenter added a single to the contest.

Forrest Zoch and Hayden Guidry pitched for the Cardinals.

Zoch threw four innings and Guidry threw one.

Zoch, who recorded the win, struck out five, gave up one hit and hit one batter.

Guidry came in and struck out two in his inning of work.

Bears take first round

Coach Griff and the Bears at LC-M must have not received the memo.

People were saying the Bears would have a down year, and would not make the playoffs.

Not only did they make the playoffs, but they have won their first round series.

The Bears beat Kingwood Park 3-0 in game one behind the pitching of Kody Smith.

The game was played at Lamar University.

Smith recorded five strike outs, walked four and gave up just one hit in his 5 1/3 innings of work.

Clay Ryan and Shane helped Smith finish the game.

The Bears scored their three runs in the fifth inning.

Catalyst Mason Dallas got things started with a single and advanced to second on a Jonathan Allen sac bunt.

Ryan Waddell received a free pass followed by Brandon Landry’s infield single that scored Dallas.

Scott Vaughan stepped in and hit an RBI single scoring Waddell and Landry.

The Bears lost game two 12 to 3 in Kingwood Park.

Hunter Gonzales belted two hits in the contest, with one of them being a two run homerun.

Game three’s hero also had two hits, a single and an RBI double.

Game three was played at Don Gibbens field, where the Bears taking the series in dramatic fashion.

With the Bears up 4 to 3, Kingwood hit a high pop-up that was mishandled by Scott Vaughan.

It allowed a runner to score from second to tie the game.

Vaughan had a chance to redeem himself in the bottom frame of the inning.

Vaughan stepped up to plate in the bottom of the seventh and hit a walk off homerun to take the game and the series.

Shane Waddell took the win on the mound by pitching a complete game.

He had four strike outs, allowed five hits and four walks.

Kingwood scored two runs in the top of the first, but the Bears topped that with three runs in the first frame.

Mason Dallas led off with a single and advanced to second on Jonathan Allen sac bunt.

Ryan Waddell contributed with a single, moving Dallas to third who then scored on a wild pitch.

Brandon Landry took his turn with an RBI single that scored Waddell, followed by Vaughan RBI double that hit the center field wall.

Kingwood came back and tied things up in the top of the second.

LC-M took back the lead in the third with a double by Vaughan followed by a error on a bunt by Shane Waddell that allowed him reach first base and Vaughan to third.

Hunter Gonzales put the ball in play that allowed Vaughan to race home from third.

Then came the dramatic seventh inning that will be talked about for a long time.

‘Stangs clip Longhorns

Zane Anderson and the West Orange-Stark Mustangs won their first round playoff game against Tarkington.

It was a winner take all game at West Brook.

Anderson, doing what he has done all year, pitched a complete game.

The only walk he issued, was an intentional walked ordered by Coach Rojas.

The free pass work out just as planned.

Tarkington was threatening to have a big inning.

Coach Riojas put the batter on to load the bases and the Longhorn hit into an ending inning 4-6-3 double play.

Anderson gave up eight hits in the game, along with striking out seven.

The Mustangs put one run on the board in the first inning.

Justin Sparrow led off with a single, stole second and third and scored on a Jordan Darnall sac fly.

In the fourth inning the Mustangs scratched for three runs.

Zach Drouillard was hit by a pitch, followed by a Darnall single.

Taylor Turley hit a ball to the short stop, who missed play it, that allowed Drouillard to score.

Anderson hit an RBI single that scored Darnall, and Jacoy Finney put the ball in play with a grounder to short that scored Turley.

Two more runs were scored in the fifth inning with a two run homer, that got out in a hurry, to keep Darnall’s perfect night at the plate intact.

West Orange last run came in the seventh inning, Luke Domas came in and hit a pinch hit double, then moved to third on Darius Mitchell sac bunt.

He then scored on Sparrow’s fly ball to right.

The Mustangs came away with a 7 to 3 victory.

Crosby downs Vidor

The Vidor Pirates faced Crosby in a one game series.

They came up short 7 to 1 in their playoff game that took place at Lamar.

Trae Hester got to get a feel on what his new mound will be like while handling the pitching duties for the Pirates.

Hester struck out six batters, allowing five hits and walked two.

The Pirates defense did not help much, with four errors.

Crosby scored six of their seven runs in the third inning.

The Pirates had four singles against Crosby’s pitching and scored their one run in the sixth inning.

The hits came off the bats of Joe Mojica, Bubby Maxwell, Michael Hester and Jonathan Neal, with Neal scoring the Pirate run.

Coach Green and the Pirates had a nice season with a final record of 19-7.

‘Cats edge Cuero

The Orangefield Bobcats were able to get some work in with a warm up game against Cuero which they won 8 to 7. Jacob Felts, Quinton Evans, Jace Statum and Chase Angelle put in the time on the mound. Combined, they had five strikeouts and allowed seven hits in the game. In the hitting department Derrick Evans had a game winning RBI single. Jace Statum added another homerun to his stats. Corey Huckabay and Chase Angelle belted two hits apiece, and both had RBIs. Kyle Fontenot, Quinton Evans and Jacob Felts each had one hit, with Fontenot and Evans’ recording RBI’s.