Published: May 04, 2008 01:47 pm            

Cleburne hangs on for 6-4 win over South Hills

FORT WORTH — The Cleburne Yellow Jackets downed South Hills 6-4 in Game 2 on Saturday at Arlington Heights High School to advance to an area round playoff matchup against Denton Ryan.

Cleburne beat South Hills 1-0 and 3-1 in a playoff series last year.

The Jackets (27-8) will open the second-round series at 7 p.m. Thursday at Denton Ryan, with Game 2 set for 7 p.m. Friday at Yellow Jacket Field.

Game 3, if necessary, will be played at 1 p.m. Saturday at Saginaw or Boswell.

Denton Ryan earned a first-round playoff bye as the District 5-4A champion.

In Saturday’s series-clinching victory, the Jackets scored five runs in the third inning and one in the fourth for Cleburne’s lone runs of the game.

“At one point it looked like we were going to roll away with it again,” Cleburne head coach Ross Taylor said. “But then all of a sudden it was tight again.”

After collecting one hit in the first two innings, Cleburne had four hits in the third and took advantage of a pair of walks to plate five runs.

Leftfielder Clayton Skoog doubled with one out and catcher Colby Braddock drew a walk. Shortstop Frankie Valdez reached base on a bunt single and Skoog scored the first run on a Scorpions error.

Designated hitter Shane Ingram, who had 16 strikeouts in a 7-0 win in Game 1 of the series Friday night, doubled in a pair of runs to stretch the lead to 3-0.

After a strikeout and a walk, rightfielder Tanner Marshall capped the scoring in the frame with a two-run double.

Cleburne starting pitcher Ty Taylor pitched around an error in the bottom of the third to keep the Scorpions off the scoreboard after an inning-ending double play.

In the top of the fourth, Taylor walked and Braddock was hit by a pitch. Valdez blooped in a single behind the South Hills infield to load the bases for Ingram, who drove in Skoog with a fielder’s choice ground ball.

The Scorpions prevented further damage on the play by tagging out a Cleburne runner at the plate.

South Hills loaded the bases in the fourth inning, but Taylor was able to pitch out of the jam again.

In the fifth, South Hills had a runnner on third base with no outs before Taylor recorded a strikeout and a flyout. Patrick Escobar followed with an RBI single and a single by Luis Caldera loaded the bases again.

Efrain Balderama singled to drive in another run and Estefan Jimenez relieved Taylor on the mound with the bases still loaded.

“I think Ty threw well,” Taylor said. “I don’t think we played very good defense behind him, but that’s kind of been the case all year long. He’s a ground ball pitcher and we’ve got to be able to field a ground ball and throw somebody out.”

Jimenez hit the first batter he faced to force in a run before inducing a pop up to second base to end the threat.

That score held up until the bottom of the seventh, when Escobar led off with a home run against Jimenez to make it 6-4. After a Caldera triple, Valdez came on to pitch.

“Bono [Jimenez] has obviously come in an done a great job for us up until today,” Taylor said. “It’s just one of those outings. His ball was a little flat and they’ve seen him before in a tournament.”

He got Balderama to pop out on the infield and Braddock ended the game by picking off Caldera at third base.

“It’s different in tournaments than it is in the playoffs,” Taylor said. “During the tournament, we didn’t throw our 1 or 2 against them and they didn’t throw their 1 or 2 against us. It just happened to be that our 3 and 4 were better than their 3 and 4.”

        

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