At the end of two full games of their Class Region I-4A Division I championship series against Mineral Wells last weekend, the West Plains Wolves had scored only four runs.
The West Plains pitchers made sure that was enough to get to a third game.
Last Saturday, the Wolves put on a pitching clinic that ensured they would advance further than any team in the school’s brief history. Three West Plains pitchers held Mineral Wells scoreless over the last 13 innings of the series in tallying 3-1 and 7-0 victories which saw the Wolves advance to this week’s state semifinals.
That’s the momentum they carry into their three-game series against Pleasant Grove starting Thursday at 4 p.m. at Frisco’s Dr Pepper Ballpark. Game two is scheduled for Friday at noon, with a third game, if necessary, slated for 30 minutes later.
What could be the X factor for West Plains (31-8) is the depth of a pitching staff which gave up plenty of nothing last weekend, giving up a mere three runs over 24 innings.
“It’s been something since the school’s open that we’ve hung our hat on,” said West Plains coach Colby Chandler, who’s been at the helm of the program since the school’s first season in 2023. “We’ve had guys who’ve come through here and guys we have here now who are going to continue that. We have the philosophy of any pitch. These guys really believe that they can throw any pitch in any count. That’s big just for confidence and establishing every pitch in each game.”
In order, seniors Jesse Flores, Reid Macon, Noah Vasquez and Ethan Griffin shut down Mineral Wells, rendering the Rams nearly helpless at the plate, especially over what amounted to nearly two complete scoreless games to close the series.
Vasquez got the big headlines for pitching a complete-game win in game two to tie the series, giving up only four hits and walking none. He also pitched the final inning of the clinching third game.
Macon, after throwing three innings of relief in the first game, started the third game and reached his UIL mandated 110-pitch limit for the week before leaving in the fourth inning. Left-hander Griffin then came on to throw 2 1/3 hitless innings of relief and pick up the clinching win, further signifying the overall quality of the West Plains staff.
“We’ve got several guys we trust to be on the mound at any point in any time,” Chandler said. “We schedule pitching based on one, who needs to work, and two, where we’re at in a game.
“We’ve utilized different guys at different times in district. Noah was somebody who came in at the back end of games and Reid and Jesse were the starters. Throughout the playoffs we’ve started Noah more and brought Reid in.”
The one starting effort which got overlooked in the series was the game one performance by Flores, which would have been good enough to win most other games. Flores threw 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball in game one against Mineral Wells, scattering eight hits before leaving with the score tied in the seventh due to the pitch count.
During the postseason, Flores has been the game one starter for the Wolves, and even the no-decision in a 2-1 loss in game one proved why.
“I love being the game one guy to set the tone for the series,” Flores said. “Having those guys behind you, you know you don’t have to be perfect because got two other dogs behind you in games two and three.”
Flores was denied a win because the Wolves scored only one run off Mineral Wells starter Brogan Wells. Ironically, that was an unearned run scored by Flores, who reached on an error in the sixth and scored on Alaka’i Carrillo’s single to tie it 1-1.
“Jesse gave us a chance to win the game,” Chandler said. “Honestly it was frustrating from an offensive standpoint that we couldn’t get our bats going to the point where we could give him some run support.”
It’s not like Vasquez got much of that the next day, either. He gave up a run on two hits in the first, and after that, gave up only a pair of singles and didn’t allow a runner to reach second base while retiring the final 11 batters in throwing only 84 pitches.
That was good enough until the Wolves finally got their bats untracked enough to overcome a 1-0 deficit and win 3-1. Following Flores gave Vasquez a goal to reach in tying the series.
“It shows what the hitters can do because he’s a great pitcher, but it doesn’t change how I throw,” said Vasquez of Flores..” I try to get ahead of them early. (Flores) threw a great game but it didn’t work out for him. I got lucky that it worked out for me the next day.”
Lucky enough that the Wolves got to the one last game to decide the series. That came down to Macon, who likely felt like he had something to prove.
Macon relieved Flores in the seventh inning of game one and allowed only one hit in his first 2 1/3 innings. However, Macon suffered a lapse of control in the bottom of the 10th, issuing two walks to load the bases before hitting Cale Kirtley with a pitch to bring home the winning run for Mineral Wells.
Game three was a chance for redemption for Macon.
“I love being a competitor and having the opportunity to win a game,” Macon said. “If the ball’s in play I love having the opportunity to go win it when it’s win or go home time. I’m confident in both Jesse and Noah to get the job done and I know they both have confidence in me. It definitely is inspiring when they’re dealing on the mound and throwing a great game. I want to do the same.”
Macon did that in his brief game three stint. He gave up a pair of singles and while he didn’t strike out anybody in 3 2/3 innings, he also didn’t walk anybody.
It was exactly what Chandler was expecting.
“Reid threw three really good innings the night before and got his pitch count up a little higher than we wanted it, and we knew we only had a limited number of pitches to work with,” Chandler said. “We told him going into that third game use every pitch you have, and he came in and was very efficient.”
Even so, that might not have been a match for what Macon did last year in game two of a bidistrict round against Andrews, when he threw a paltry 58 pitches in a complete-game 2-0 victory.
Still, Macon couldn’t get the game three win against Mineral Wells since he was one out short before reaching his pitch limit. That would fall to whoever followed him.
Griffin came in, as his been his custom all season in relief. He walked the first batter, but after that kept Mineral Wells from even getting a hit.
“All season I’ve been put in those situations, so basically I was ready,” Griffin said. “I knew I was going to have a little bit of nerves. If you love the game and care about it you’re going to have a little bit of nerves. Once you see that you can get a guy our you repeat the motion and let the defense do the work behind you and if you pitch to contact you’ll get outs.”
That seemed to be the prevailing theory against West Plains on Saturday. Over 14 innings, Vasquez, Macon and Griffin combined for only seven strikeouts, but gave up only six hits and two walks.
The big theme for the staff appears to be getting outs, regardless of how it’s done.
“We rely on each other at the end of the day,” Vasquez said. “Some of us have better days than others and we hope for the best. We have a great defense so we can pound the zone and rely on them and not try to strike everybody out.”
Chandler isn’t going to mess with the formula this far down the line. He says he’ll start Flores on Thursday and Vasquez to begin Friday and see what happens from there.
“I think we all compete pretty well and want to do better than each other,” Flores said. “It’s going to be a tough series but we have confidence. People thought we were going to run out of pitching but we didn’t. We’ve all been in tight situations and we’re all prepared.”
Pleasant Grove (36-4) advanced by sweeping Celina 4-0 and 11-6 in the Region II finals. In the first game, left-hander Hunter Rose, who struck out 12 and gave up one hit, got the win. Rose has signed with Arkansas.