2017 SEASON COMES TO AN END
The Brenham Cubs saw their 2017 season come to an end, one step shy of a trip to the State Tournament.
The Cubs (26-10) fell to Port Neches-Groves 4-0, as the Indians took a two-game-to-none victory in the Region III/5A Championship.
(Photo: Mark Whitehead)
The Indians (31-8) took the early lead, tallying a run in the first inning on a triple from Logan LeJune, followed by an rbi-single from Austin Bost.
The game remained 1-0 into the bottom of the fifth as the Cubs’ Dane Acker and Indians’ Josh Hranicke engaged in a taught pitchers duel.
(Mark Whitehead)
The Cubs threatened in four of their first five innings, stranding runners in scoring position in the first, third, fourth and fifth.
In the bottom of the fifth, PN-G added two insurance runs, as Acker hit Bost with a pitch with the bases loaded, then uncorked a wild pitch that made the score 3-0.
The Indians added another run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly from Jacob Vaughn.
Hranicke went the distance, yielding four hits while striking out five and walking three.
Acker (5-2) went all six innings for the Cubs, yielding four runs on eight hits, while striking out two.
Eight different Indians each had one hit, with LeJune’s triple as the only extra base hit.
Davion Lockett was two-for-three for the Cubs with a pair of singles and a stolen base. Darvis Watson and Colton Buro had the Cubs’ only other two hits on the night.
An emotional Cubs Head Coach Lanny Williams said he was proud of his team’s effort, “Those guys (PNG) did a great job. It just wasn’t in the cards for us. I’m so proud of our guys—the season they had, the effort they gave…they just never gave up.”
“PNG did a great job. They did a great job of executing when they needed to and doing all the little things right. Hraniecke was dead on tonight Our guys had a hard time adjusting to him and our guys didn’t hit the pitches they needed to hit.”
(Mark Whitehead)
“Our defense did a really good job. They didn’t make any errors and made all the routine plays when they had to. It just came down to hitting, and we didn’t get the job done with the bats.”
For the Indians it is their second trip to the State Tournament (their first since 2000).
Port Neches-Groves will play next Thursday at either 4:00 or 7:00 at Dell Diamond in Round Rock.
For the Cubs, it was the final game for nine seniors: Dane Acker, Joseph Avila, Kyle Gurka, Chandler Jozwiak, Marshall Kohring, Davion Lockett, Zach Marshall, Tristan Schwartz, and Darvis Watson.
“Our guys are blessed,” said Williams. “We’ve had a great following…our kids give 100-percent and love doing this for our community.”
So proud of our Brenham Cubs!! The way the coaches and players came together as a team demonstrating good sportsmanship and quality baseball. Gave a lot of old men and women something to do and talk about for the past few weeks. How far could they go? Is there one more come from behind series by this team?
It just didn’t happen quite like we all wanted. I do not think that PNG was better than us, just had the baseball fall their way far too often. Regardless the players and coaches should be extremely proud of what they accomplished. They upheld the Brenham tradition, “Baseball Capitol of Texas”.
For those seniors that will be playing at the next level, work very hard as it will not come easy. You have a lot of former Cubs that excelled at the next level and I am sure they would tell you that playing at a high level comes from out working the next guy.
To all the returning players, remember that Championships are not won on game day; it’s what you do the other days that will make the difference.
Thanks to this Cub’s team for a great season. All I can say at this point is “wait till next year”.