BURTON SEASON ENDS ON TWO SHUTOUTS TO THORNDALE
a runner out. (Mark Whitehead)
The season came to an end for the Burton Panther Baseball Team as they dropped both games of their Area Round Doubleheader to the #9 State Ranked Thorndale Bulldogs 4-0 and 2-0. The games were held at Bombers Stadium in Bryan.
Tyler Witt got the start in game one. The game was scoreless until the top of the third when Thorndale finally broke through. Jayden Clawson singled, stole second, and then scored when Kaden Kovar beat out an infield hit to make it 1-0 Bulldogs.
Burton then fell victim to an overzealous first base umpire. After making multiple questionable calls, when Head Coach Matt Thaler tried to argue, the umpire wound up confining him to coaching from the dugout for the remainder of the game. Assistant Coach Timothy Honeycutt had to shift to coaching third base, and that left Burton with no first base coach.
Thorndale would take advantage of a pair of Burton errors to add three runs in the top of the fifth, and increase their lead to 4-0.
Burton almost pushed a run across in the bottom of the sixth. Reuben Rodriguez reached on a two out single. Colby Beck followed with a double. Rodriguez tried to score. On a play at home plate, it appeared that Rodriguez was safe, however, instead of the home plate umpire making the call, the first base umpire came running in and called Rodriguez out. This was in spite of him being on the back side of the play, and could not have possibly seen Rodriguez's hand, or the tag.
Witt would go on to pitch all seven innings, allowing six hits, four runs, only two were earned, walking two, and striking out five.
Offensively, Burton managed just three hits in the game. Thorndale pitcher Jaxon Eschberger finished with 11 strikeouts on his way to a win.
In the second game, Thorndale scored a run on an RBI groundout in the bottom of the first inning.
They added another run on a sacrifice fly in the fourth and that would all they needed to sweep the series.
Eli Jaeger got the start for Burton in Game Two. He went six innings allowing three hits, two earned runs, four walks, and struck out five.
Offensively, Burton had four hits in the game, all singles.
Burton finished the season at 18-10. It was the final games for seniors Colby Beck and Bryson Biggs.