The roll with which the West Plains Wolves entered the UIL Class 4A Division I state semis couldn’t continue at the same level this week.
In fact, the Pleasant Grove Hawks put up the toughest obstacle the Wolves had seen yet, ending the West Plains wild ride.
The Wolves saw their season end rather abruptly early Friday afternoon at Frisco’s Dr Pepper Ballpark following two rough days against Pleasant Grove. West Plains never led in the series, as Pleasant Grove won the first game 10-3 on Thursday, then completed the sweep with a 10-0 six-inning 10-run mercy rule win Friday, leaving the Wolves (31-10) two wins short of a state championship game.
It was like cold water in the face following last week’s series win over Mineral Wells in the Region I finals, where West Plains overcame a game one loss with two wins on Saturday. They closed the series by holding Mineral Wells scoreless over the last 13 innings.
It wasn’t meant to be against Pleasant Grove, but it didn’t ruin a good season nonetheless.
“I’m super proud of these seniors and what they did for our school and our community,” West Plains coach Colby Chandler said. “I’m excited that we got our program on the map just getting to this point, but obviously we wanted to continue playing for it all. We just fell short of that.”
The hot pitching streak reached one more inning in game one when starter Jesse Flores pitched a scoreless first against Pleasant Grove (38-4). However, the Hawks set the tone for the series when they scored three runs in the bottom of the second on a hit batter, a walk and a passed ball with the bases loaded for a 3-0 lead.
Pleasant Grove added another run in the third before the Wolves cut the lead in half at 4-2 in the fourth, thanks to Boston Ladd’s bunt single and an error and Reid Macon’s sacrifice fly. That was as close as they got the rest of the series.
In the bottom of the inning, winning pitcher Hunter Rose singled in a run to make it 5-2 and when Flores issued a walk to load the bases with no outs, he was pulled for Boston Ladd. With two outs, Christian May singled to center off Ladd to make it 7-2 and out the Wolves in a hole which was too deep.
Rose, who has signed with Arkansas, was 3-for-4 and drove in four runs, falling a home run short of the cycle. Macon had two hits and drove in two runs for the Wolves.
The second game wasn’t quite as competitive. Pleasant Grove got to West Plains starter Noah Vasquez with two runs in the first, as Spencer Browning had an RBI double and scored on Jace Elrod’s sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead, which was all the Hawks needed.
Browning was the winning pitcher, scattering five singles and not allowing a runner past second in six innings.
“The season was a grind as every long baseball season is,” Chandler said. “It starts in January and ends in June as the goal. We were right there. We played all but one week that we could have played. At the end of the day I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Vasquez gave up three more runs in the second as the hawks went up 5-0, and after allowing two hits to start the third, he was pulled for Macon. Both runners he inherited scored and Pleasant Grove went up 7-0.
The Hawks invoked the run rule with three runs in the sixth, as Buck Anderson’s two-run triple and Walker Wright’s RBI triple provided the final margin
