WOODROW – Through 12 innings of their best-of-three Region I-4A Division I championship series against Mineral Wells, the frustration for the West Plains Wolves was palpable early Saturday afternoon.
After giving up next to nothing for the equivalent of nearly two games, West Plains had nothing to show for it. So, from that point on, the Wolves decided to give up nothing.
That’s exactly what carried them into the state semifinals. Over the final 13 innings of their series with Mineral Wells at First United Bank Park on the campus of Lubbock-Cooper High School, the Wolves didn’t give up a single run, and their bats only had to do minimal damage, which was enough to give them 3-1 and 7-0 victories and brand them the most successful program in school history after four years.
Those two wins gave West Plains (31-8) a 2-1 series victory over Mineral Wells (23-15-2) and a spot in the state semifinals next week against Pleasant Grove and a date and time to be determined.
West Plains had zero margin for error on Saturday after the way they lost Friday’s game one, falling 2-1 in 10 innings in a classic postseason pitchers’ duel. Pitchers Noah Vasquez, Reid Macon and Ethan Griffin ensured the Wolves stayed within that margin of error.
“We said we just had to find a way to go win two somehow,” said West Plains coach Colby Chandler in as simple and direct an explanation which could motivate the Wolves. “We had the guys on the mound to do it and we knew it. We trusted our pitching and what we had and we knew we’d get our bats going.”
It took awhile for the Wolves to get their bats going and Mineral Wells never quite did it. Over the last 13 innings Saturday, the Rams never even got a runner past second base.
The teams combined for 16 hits in game one, but each only plated a run in extra innings. Macon, who came on in relief of Jesse Flores in the seventh, hit Cale Kitley with a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th (an inning where Mineral Wells didn’t manage a hit) to bring home the winning run.
Mineral Wells seemed to take some momentum into game two against Vasquez. Braxton May hit an RBI double to left to give the Rams a 1-0 lead.
That was all Vasquez surrendered. He wasn’t overpowering, but he gave up only four hits and walked none while retiring 11 straight to end the game.
“My last outing I had a bad outing, but I knew my team was relying on me and I had to come out and shut the door so it could go to game three,” Vasquez said. “Everything really felt good. I was able to locate everything I wanted to and it worked out.”
Vasquez didn’t just shut the door, he changed the locks and the Wolves eventually evicted the Rams through sheer force.
A great mound performance, though, means nothing without at least some offense. The lone West Plains run on Friday was unearned and the Wolves didn’t push across an earned run in the first 13 innings of the series.
West Plains tied it against Mineral Well starter Brogan Sims in the bottom of the first. Kaden Hooker reached on a leadoff single and the bases were eventually loaded thanks in part to an error and Alaka’i Carrillo drove home Hooker on a groundout to tie it 1-1.
The Wolves got on their leadoff hitter again to start the fourth when Boston Ladd tripled to left. Macon then drove him home with a sacrifice fly to give the Wolves a 2-1 lead, the first time in the series they led and they never trailed again.
Ladd tripled again to right in the sixth and Macon drove him home wtih a single up the middle, giving Vasquez some unneeded insurance heading into the seventh.
“It’s always that competitor in me that wants to win at the highest level,” said Macon, a senior who quarterbacked the West Plains football team to the state semifinals in 2024. “I”ve got trust in my teammates. They lifted me up and at the end of the day it’s a team sport. Kudos to our coaches and teammates who put me in a great position to win today.”
Macon was slated to start game three, but only under the strangest of circumstances could he have finished it. Having appeared in relief less than 24 hours earlier, Macon was more than halfway to completing the UIL maximum of 110 pitches thrown in a week and could legally only throw a few innings against Mineral Wells.
“He went as far as he could legally,” said Chandler of Macon. “We figured his pitch count and we told hm we were going to use every single one, and we did. He wanted 10 more if we could have given it to him. I’m super, super proud of him.”
Macon gave up single to Mineral Wells starter WIlliam Hollifield to lead off the bottom of the first, then got Kord Henry to ground into a double play. That seemed to say everything about the fortunes of the two teams on the day.
West Plains finally broke through with five hits off Hollifield in the top of the third. The Wolves got a break with two on and two out with Alaka’i Carrillo hit a high fly to right field which Devin Russell appeared to lose in the sun, resulting in a double which allowed two runs to score.
Carrillo then scored on a single by Elijah Vasquez to make it 3-0, and from that point on the series seemed like a formality.
Macon retired seven straight after Hollifield’s single. He then retired the first two batters of the fourth and was removed since he’d reached his legal pitch limit.
“That’s what you want as a pitcher,” Macon said. “You want that game three to seal the deal, I’m grateful that coach out trust in me to do that. Ethan Griffin came in behind me and Noah came in to close it out.”
Griffin, a left-hander, did walk two, but gave up no hits in 2 1/3 innings to keep Mineral Wells at bay. The Wolves demoralized the Rams in that time, scoring single runs in the fourth and fifth and two more in the seventh to add an exclamation point.
In the bottom of the seventh, Vasquez took the mound again, as he threw only 84 pitches in the first game and still had room to finish. He gave up a single, but struck out two batters on the way to closing the series.
“It was a little bit scary going into it,” admitted Chandler. “We knew we had to get some great performances by Noah and Reid. They both wanted the baseball and Griff did a heck of a job coming in and shutting them down for two innings. I’m proud of this group and I had no doubt last night going to bed that these guys had it in them and they would find a way.”
It was appropriate that Vasquez ended the series with the ball in his hands. During the series he not only pitched, but played shortstop, centerfield and second base, proving the team’s Swiss Army knife.
“We were two scrappy teams and it just came down to our mindset,” Vasquez said. “I wanted to be on the mound at the end because it’s a cool experience, but it’s all about the team.”
It seems like it’s that way about all of the West Plains boys teams in the four-year history of the school. The Wolves have made the state semifinals in football and basketball thus far.
Now baseball joins that list. This is nothing new for players like Macon, Hooker and Ladd, who have all been this far before in at least one other sport before this weekend.
“I’m super proud of this group as a whole,” Chandler said. “We’re making school history. We’ve gotten a medal in every single sport and now we’ll have one in baseball. We want a different color so we’re going to have to go to work to figure out how to do that.”
Pleasant Grove (36-4) awaits West Plains, and advanced to the state semis by sweeping Celina in the Region II finals, 4-0 and 11-6.