They hadn’t lost before their best-of-three UIL Class 2A Division II area round series Thursday night, but the clock seemed like it was ticking loudly for the Gruver Greyhounds in game two against Tahoka in their 19th game of the season.
With three outs left to go before the series would be eventually tied at a game apiece, though, the Greyhounds reminded everybody of their results in their previous 18 games.
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Gruver trailed Tahoka by five runs entering the seventh inning of game two and looked almost certain to go to a third and decisive game back at Highland Park on Friday afternoon. Down to their final out, the Greyhounds mounted an improbable rally capped by Stephen Cowan’s three-run double to give them their only lead of the day, and after an ill-timed weather delay, they held on for a 7-6 win and a series sweep, following a 12-2 five-inning 10-run mercy rule win in game one.
The Greyhounds (19-0) will face Albany in next week’s region semifinals at a date and place to be determined. After their closest call of the year against Tahoka (13-12), they’re probably prepared for anything they’ll face the rest of the way.
“I really feel like our guys are pretty grindy and they love to compete so they don’t get worked up about situations,” Gruver coach Khris Kelp said. “That’s the fun thing about baseball, you’ve still got to get all the outs.”
Through six innings, Tahoka had gotten 18 of the 21 outs necessary to beat Gruver. The Bulldogs led 6-1 heading into the seventh and Gruver had only touched Tahoka starter Brogan Stone for an RBI single by winning pitcher Briggs Satterfield in the top of the third. Tahoka scored four runs off Satterfield with two outs in the seventh for a cushion.
With one out in the seventh, Stone, who hadn’t issued a walk through six innings, walked freshman Cohen Jones, and the floodgates opened.
Bo Cowan reached on an error that was kicked into the outfield, allowing Jones to score and Pake Babbs reached on an infield single. Kip Pittman hit into a fielder’s choice to force Babbs at second and a bad throw by Tahoka shortstop Dante Garcia on the relay allowed Cowan to score and make it 6-3.
When Merit Cudd doubled to left one pitch later to score Pittman and make it 6-4, Tahoka’s nervousness became palpable.
“We can get worked up in practice but it doesn’t do us any good for the coaches to get worked up in a game,” Kelp said. “We just try to give our guys the best chance we can and believe in them. I think when we got one runner on we just needed to keep passing it to the next guy and let him do his job.”
One pitch after Cudd’s hit, though, it looked like the job was done, as Satterfield hit a routine grounder to Tahoka third baseman Oscar Rendon. However, Rendon threw the ball into the turf short of first, continuing the game.
Brock Butler then worked Stone to a full count to load the bases and up stepped Stephen Cowan, the ninth batter of the inning and one of only two Gruver seniors. He was hitting again after making the last out in the sixth against Stone, who threw only four pitches that inning.
“All we needed was a chance,” said Cowan, who threw four innings to win the first game. “We make the most of it. We’d been scouting them all week and (Stone) had been throwing inside, inside, inside and we made an adjustment.”
On a 2-2 pitch, Cowan did exactly that, belting a double to left center to clear the bases and give the Greyhounds a 7-6 lead.
“All I was thinking was get on three,” said Cowan, who wanted a triple. “I didn’t get there but it was a good feeling.”
It seemed like the moment Butler touched home with the go-ahead run that the umpires ordered the teams off the field due to a lightning storm, literally raining on Gruver’s parade. The game didn’t resume for another 30 minutes.
When things resumed, Stone was relieved by Damien Avalos, who got Pittman to ground to third on the first pitch and end the inning. The Greyhounds still needed to record three outs in the bottom of the seventh to secure the win, and since Satterfield had already thrown 110 pitches of the 110 -pitch UIL limit, Butler was called on for the save.
“Our coaches let me know om advance and we went to the bus and came out here and got warmed up,” Butler said. “We weren’t in there that long and staying focused was the main deal. I was a little disappointed (with the rain delay) because we had a lot of momentum and it was frustrating that we had to quit and resume it but it all ended up working.”
Tahoka’s Cayden Gutierrez led off the seventh with a single off Butler and advanced to second on a passed ball, putting the tying run in scoring position. However, Butler retired the next three batters in order, getting Martin Vera-Carlton to ground to second and complete the sweep.
It was an improbable win in so many ways for the Greyhounds, especially considering that they were outhit 8-4. That and the fact the teams combined for nine errors hardly made it an artistic triumph.
The Greyhounds committed four errors but allowed no unearned runs, while all of their runs in the seventh were unearned thanks to three Tahoka errors. Gruver took advantage of the situation, which explains why the Greyhounds still don’t have a number in the “L” column.
“Defensively in that second game was not our cleanest effort,” Kelp said. “We’ve definitely played cleaner games but it’s baseball. Major league baseball players make errors, You’ve just got to have a short memory and move on to the next pitch. You always need that challenge.”
The first game was far more typical of what Gruver has done this season. Tahoka got on the board in the top of the first when Stephen Cowan hit leadoff batter Jordan Hicks, who scored on Sam Kessler’s sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead.
Gruver took control in the bottom of the inning, though. knocking out Tahoka starter Bek McCleskey to take a 7-1 lead. The big hits in the inning were a two-run double by Jones and a two-run single by Kip Pittman.
The Greyhounds led 9-2 before scoring three runs in the third to attain the run-rule margin. All the runs came with two outs, as Bo Cowan’s two-run single capped the inning and assured Gruver had the run-rule cushion.