ABILENE – Overcoming adversity has been the theme for the injury-riddled May Tigers throughout the season, and that continued Saturday morning as they climbed out of an early hole, then fought off a late charge to defeat the Westbrook Wildcats, 9-8, at Abilene Christian High School to advance to the Region I-1A baseball semifinals.
“These guys are resilient, they have been all year,” said May head coach Chad Dail. “They’ve battled a lot of adversity through injuries. We’re young, we’ve got injuries, but they keep fighting and keep being resilient and I can’t say enough about that. That’s their identity and it has been all year. They find ways to battle back. We may be down but we’re never out. I’m proud of the guys.”
Down 2-0 early, the District 7 champion Tigers (10-3) answered with eight consecutive runs to build a six-run cushion over District 6 runner-up Westbrook (9-7). The Wildcats, however, responded with six of the next seven runs to close the gap to 9-8 heading into the seventh inning.
There, May relief pitcher Hagan Hester came on for starter Cayson Dail and struck out Ethan King and Zane Beasley, then retired Caul Hoback on a slow chopper in front of the mound to secure the victory.
“We knew if we had the lead coming into the seventh inning that Hagan could come in and get three up, three down. We have that kind of confidence in our guys,” Dail said. “My starter also did a wonderful job for us. He was at 107 on the pitch count and we pushed him pretty hard. Both pitchers did a fantastic job.”
Trailing by a pair of runs after two innings with four strikeouts at the plate, it took May until the second time through the order against Westbrook starter Jaxson Browne to find a rhythm. But once the Tigers did, they generated nine runs over four consecutive innings.
“We were three up, three down the first two innings and a lot of teams would lay down after that,” Dail said. “These kids don’t lay down, they just fight and fight. I wasn’t worried or concerned because of the type of kids they are. Then once we started hitting the ball, one through nine was hitting the ball. I’m really proud of the kids for what they did not only offensively, but defensively, today.”
May pulled even at 2 in the top of the third inning as Ace Koethler reached on a one-out error, moved to third base on an errant pick-off throw at first, and scored on Cutter Newton’s RBI ground out. Then, with two down, Dail singled up the middle, Hunter Seider followed with a base hit to right field, and Hester’s RBI bloop single to left field allowed Dail to race home with the tying run.
The Tigers then opened a 6-2 advantage in the fourth as Jackson Lusk reached on an infield single to start the frame, then Daegan Foster walked ahead of the go-ahead RBI base hit to left field by Brody Stice. With one out, Newton delivered an RBI single to right field to push the lead to 4-2, and Dail ripped a two-RBI single to left field to stretch the advantage to four runs.
May added two more runs in the fifth as Foster walked with one out and Stice followed with a single to left field. Then Koethler’s grounder back to the pitcher was thrown away at third base, allowing both base runners to come home and stake the Tigers to an 8-2 advantage.
Westbrook closed the gap to 8-5 in the bottom of the fifth on a two-RBI triple by Shawn Salazar, who later scored on wild pitch.
The Tigers tallied their final run – which turned out to be the game-winner – in top of the sixth inning as Hester led off with a triple to deep right field and scored on Kaden Watkins’ RBI single to left.
The Wildcats put three more runs on the board in the bottom of the sixth as Hoback and Caleb Browne singled to start the frame, Keegan Gilbreath delivered a two-RBI triple, and Salazar singled home Gilbreath. With the tying run on second base and one out, Dail – who yielded eight runs on eight hits with five strikeouts, two walks and one hit batter over six frames – retired Bo Payne and Jaxson Browne on infield pop ups to exit the inning with the lead.
May finished with 11 hits – three by Stice, who drove in one; two by Dail, who plated two; two by Lusk, who added an RBI; Newton and Watkins with singles and an RBI apiece; and Koethler with a single as well.
Next for May, undefeated Ira (19-0) – which defeated Cross Plains twice, 24-4 and 13-5, Friday night at McMurry – awaits in the regional semifinal round.