Published: May 10, 2008 11:49 pm            

Denton Ryan outlasts Cleburne in eight innings

FORT WORTH — Denton Ryan third baseman Bubba Roddy hit a walkoff RBI double in the bottom of the eighth inning Saturday to give the Raiders a 3-2 win over Cleburne in Game 3 of a best-of-three area-round baseball series at Saginaw High School.

“I thought our pitching was good enough to win,” Cleburne head coach Ross Taylor said. “We gave up one earned run in eight innings. You ought to win when you give up one earned run in eight innings.”

Ryan won the first game of the series 9-0 at home Thursday night, while Cleburne defended Yellow Jacket Field on Friday night with a 5-1 victory to force the series to a deciding game.

“I’m proud of the way these guys came together and competed,” Taylor said. “They looked at Denton Ryan and they were ranked this year and they’ve got a very storied tradition. I thought our guys, especially after Game 1 when they were kind of shell-shocked, I thought they bounced back and competed well. They represented Cleburne in a way that Cleburne can be proud of.”

In Saturday’s deciding game, the teams went to extra innings tied at 2-2. In the top of the eighth, catcher Colby Braddock reached on an error with one out and Shane Ingram was intentionally walked with two outs, putting runners on first and second for the Jackets.

Ryan reliever Scotty Young, who entered the game in the fourth inning, struck out pinch hitter Tanner Marshall to end the threat.

Cleburne reliever Frankie Valdez struck out the first two batters he faced in the eighth before hitting Zach Voight with a pitch.

Roddy worked the count full before lacing the game-winning double between two Jacket outfielders as Voight raced around to score the winning run.

After Cleburne was retired in the top half of the first, Ryan Salter led off by reaching on an error. He was sacrificed to second on a bunt by Will Nelson and stole third base with two outs in the inning.

Salter scored when a Ty Taylor pitch got away from Braddock to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead.

Cleburne tied the score in the third inning as Taylor reached on an error and Clayton Skoog singled to put runners on the corners. Skoog stole second base on a pitch to Braddock, who drove Taylor home with a single.

Skoog was caught off third base and was tagged out trying to get back to the base.

Valdez then flied out to center and Ingram grounded out to end the inning.

The Raiders quickly took the lead back in the bottom of the inning, as Juan Gloria singled and advanced to third on a pair of bunts. He scored on a Cleburne fielding error to give Ryan a 2-1 lead.

In the fourth inning, the Raiders attempted to pad their lead, but Skoog recorded an outfield assist by gunning down Cord Jesek, who tagged up on a flyout, at home to end the inning.

“Clayton Skoog made a great play,” Taylor said. “That was a good throw right there.”

Braddock was hit in the head by a pitch with one out in the top of the fifth inning. He stayed down for several minutes as the coaches and trainers attended to him at home plate, Braddock eventually got up and jogged to first base.

He was replaced on the bases by courtesy runner Bif Jones, who went to second base on a passed ball and scored on an RBI double by Ingram to knot the score at 2-2.

“[Friday] night the baseball gods kind of smiled on us,” Taylor said. “It seemed like everything they hit hard, they hit right at somebody. Tonight, we got another good pitching performance. Ty went seven pretty strong innings and Frankie looked in command. They had their fastest guy on their team on first base, with a 3-2 count, running. He was to second by the time the ball hit the ground.”

        

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