McELREATH DELIVERS CUBS INTO REGION QUARTERFINALS
Sam McElreath’s two-out bloop single fell in front of a diving Brady Batten, giving the Brenham Cubs a 5-4 win over Rudder and a berth in the Region III/5A Quarterfinals.
McElreath’s heroics came after Zach Barnes’ two-out single, followed by a double down the left field line by Jaquay Cross kept the inning alive.
“Is that something else?” asked Cubs’ head coach Lanny Williams. “Baseball is an incredible game!”
“I just can’t believe it,” McElreath said after the game. “I’m just so glad I could come through for my teammates. We fought so hard to win this game!”
The Cubs (22-7) were forced into the bottom of the seventh when the Rangers (18-13) rallied to tie the score with two runs in the top of the inning, erasing a 4-2 Cubs’ lead.
Broc Bosse pitched the Cubs into the seventh with a two-run lead.
Williams then went to Blake Wellmann to try to close out the game on one-day’s rest. Wellmann struck out the lead off hitter, but the number-nine hitter Jestin Garcia reached on an error. Wellmann then hit Sean Arnold with his next pitch. Joey Orsak followed with a single, loading the bases for number-three hitter Jeremy Johnson.
Johnson responded with a double to right to tie the game at 4-4, with just one out and runners on second and third.
Sophomore lefty Chandler Jozwiak then entered the game to try to keep the score tied. After an intentional walk to load the bases, Jozwiak got Elijah Adams to pop-out to second and then struck our McKinley Maurer to end the inning.
“Chandler made some big pitches for us,” said Williams. “He really came through when we needed.”
The Cubs had built a 4-0 lead, with s run in the first inning on an error that scored McElreath. A three-run third inning increased the Cubs’ lead.
Jacob Stegent drove home McElreath with a ground ball out. Rayne Richard’s rbi-single platedf Jack Baker, who was running for Ryan Newman. Pinch-runner Tyler Morgan raced home on a double-steal to increase the Cubs lead to four runs.
Orsak got the Rangers on the board with run in the fourth inning on Adams’ single. Maurer cut the lead to 4-2 in the sixth with an rbi-double that scored Batten.
Despite the no-decision, Bosse came up big for the Cubs, scattering five hits and striking out six over six innings.
“My fastball really set up my curve today,” said Bosse. “I felt really good out there—I had pretty good control of my pitches. This was a great win.”
“Broc was awesome,” said McElreath. “He’s easily the best third-game pitcher in the state. I truly believe that.”
The win sends the Cubs into the Region Quarterfinals against Tomball Memorial. The Cubs defeated the Mustangs twice this season, by identical scores of 1-0. Wellmann and Dylan Lester each threw a complete game one-hit shutout against Memorial.
The two District 19/5A foes will square off in a best two-of-three next week.
Thursday the series will open at Firemen’s Park in Brenham at 7:00. Game-two and (if necessary) game-three will be Friday night beginning at 5:30 in Tomball.
All games can be heard live on KWHI and www.kwhi.com.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
| RUDDER | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 1 |
| CUBS | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 2 |
| Cubs Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | HR |
| Broc Bosse | 6.0 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 0 |
| Blake Wellmann | 0.1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Chandler Jozwiak W (3-0) | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Totals | 7.0 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 0 |
| Rudder Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | HR |
| Sean Arnold | 2.0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Elijah Adams L | 4.2 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Totals | 6.2 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 0 |
| Cubs Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB |
| Jaquay Cross | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Sam McElreath | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Ryan Newman | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Zach Marshall | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Tyler Morgan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jacob Stegent | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Dylan Lester | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Rayne Richard | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Blake Paschal | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Jack Baker | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Zack Barnes | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 30 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 7 |
2B: Jaquay Cross
| Rudder Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB |
| Sean Arnold | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Joseph Orsak | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Jeramey Johnson | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Brady Batten | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Elijah Adams | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| McKinley Maurer | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Anthony Voneiff | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bailey Giffen | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Justen Garcia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Brian Williams | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| CJ Sullivan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 28 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 4 |
2B: Jeramey Johnson, McKinley Maurer
REGION III/5A AREA PLAYOFFS
| Brenham (20-6) vs. Bryan Rudder (17-11) |
| Game 1: Cubs 4 Rudder 1 |
| Game 2: Rudder 2 Cubs 1 |
| Game 3: Cubs 5 Rudder 4 |
| Tomball Memorial (15-13-1) vs. Bryan (16-11-1) |
| Game 1: Tomball Memorial 8 Bryan 2 |
| Game 2: Tomball Memorial 1 Bryan 0 |
| Richmond Foster (22-7) vs. Kingwood Park (17-11-1) |
| Game 1: Kingwood Park 5 Foster 3 |
| Game 2: Kingwood Park 7 Foster 5 |
| Fort Bend Elkins (15-9) vs. Goose Creek Memorial (22-5-1) |
| Game 1: Elkins 5 Goose Creek Memorial 4 |
| Game 2: Goose Creek Memorial 3 Elkins 1 |
| Game 3: Elkins 6 Goose Creek Memorial 5 |
| College Station (22-5-1) vs. Magnolia (18-10) |
| Game 1: College Station 10 Magnolia 3 |
| Game 2: College Station 2 Magnolia 0 |
| Tomball (22-9-1) vs. Temple (16-9-2) |
| Game 1: Tomball 7 Temple 1 |
| Game 2: Tomball 8 Temple 0 |
| Port Neches-Groves (22-6-1) vs. Ridge Point (20-7-1) |
| Game 1: Ridge Point 2 PN-Groves 1 |
| Game 2: Ridge Point 9 PN-Groves 0 |
| Crosby (23-6) vs. George Ranch (18-8) |
| Game 1: Crosby 7 George Ranch 2 |
| Game 2: Crosby 9 George Ranch 5 |
REGION IV/2A, AREA
| Thorndale (19-6) 11 Burton Panthers (15-9) 0 |
| Flatonia (15-5-1) vs. Big Sandy (17-6) |
| Game 1: Flatonia 4 Big Sandy 2 |
| Game 2: Flatonia 3 Big Sandy 0 |
| Weimar (20-2) 3 Evadale (16-10) 2 (12 inn) |
| Shiner (20-3-1) 6 Anderson-Shiro (20-2) 2 |
REGION III/4A, AREA
| Bridge City 5 Giddings 1 |
| Caldwell (12-12) vs. Huffman Hargrave (20-4) |
| Game 1: Huffman-Hargrave 9 Caldwell 3 |
| Game 2: Huffman-Hargrave 7 Caldwell 0 |
| Navasota (18-9) vs. West Orange-Stark (18-7) |
| Game 1: West Orange-Stark 2 Navasota 1 |
| Game 2: West Orange-Stark 3 Navasota 2 |
| Bellville (18-7) vs. Shepherd (11-11) |
| Game 1: Bellville 1 Shepherd 0 |
| Game 2: Bellville 7 Shepherd 5 |