ABILENE – Trailing 9-3 after four innings, the Bangs Dragons reeled off the final six runs of regulation – including four with two outs in the top of the seventh – to force extra innings, but the Stamford Bulldogs emerged with a 10-9, eight-inning victory to cap a Region I-2A quarterfinal series sweep Saturday at Abilene Christian High School.
Trailing 9-5 at start of the seventh inning, Bangs’ Jaxon Duncan reached on a one-out error and Kade Minshew was hit by a pitch from reliever Alex Hernandez – the third Stamford pitcher of the game. With two outs, Hunter Crowell drew one of six base on balls issued by the Bulldogs pitching staff to load the bases and prolong the frame.
Hunter Newton followed with a dribbler up the middle and beat the throw from shortstop with a diving slide into first base for an RBI infield single that plated Weston Scantling, running for Duncan.
Down 9-6, Skylar Minshew then laced a three-RBI triple down the right field line, clearing the bases and knotting the score at 9 as Kade Minshew, Aden Jones – running for Crowell – and Newton all crossed the plate. Hernandez was able to prevent Bangs from taking the lead in the top of the seventh, however, as he retired Kenny Cole on a fly out to right field.
“The fight was pretty unreal,” said Bangs head coach J.T. Newton. “That’s what we’ve done all year. We just fight, fight and fight. Bangs Dragons, we fight and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Bangs was retired in order in the top of the eighth inning, while in the bottom of the eighth Stamford’s Brayden Jimenez reached on an error to start the frame – one of six miscues in the field by the Dragons. Kaston Vega moved Jimenez to second base with a sacrifice bunt, then Hernandez was intentionally walked to put the double play possibility into effect. Instead, Alex Guzman lifted a deep fly ball off Skylar Minshew down the right field line that landed just inside the chalk, allowing Jimenez to score for the walk-off win for the Bulldogs.
Prior to Bangs’ late rally, it appeared the game had been decided during the third and fourth innings. There, the Dragons loaded the bases with no outs in the top of each frame, but mustered only one run in each inning. Meanwhile, Stamford produced eight runs in the same span – three in the third and five in the fourth, aided by three Bangs errors in the fifth inning alone.
“We talk about that all the time and in a big game like this you have to take advantage when you get runners on,” said Newton, whose team stranded 20 base runners in the series – 10 in each contest. “Their pitchers did a good job of mixing it up, throwing curve balls for a strike when they needed to. Hats off to them, but it’s pretty important to get those runs across when you have opportunities.”
Bangs took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Crowell led off with a walk against Stamford starter Caden Moreno and later scored on a wild pitch.
Stamford drew even at 1 in the bottom of the second as Hernandez reached on an error to begin in the inning and scored from third with two outs when Mason Mueller beat out and infield single down the third base line.
The Dragons regained a 2-1 edge in the third as Newton led off with an infield single and Skylar Minshew walked – which led to a pitching change as Guzman took over for Moreno. Cole then laid down a bunt single to fill the sacks with no outs. Zack Ferguson was fanned by Guzman, then Brayden Gatlin followed with an RBI ground out to plate Newton, but Duncan fouled out to the catcher to end the threat.
The Bulldogs grabbed a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the third as Bangs starting pitcher Kade Minshew walked Carlos Vega, then Christian Duran was hit by a pitch. With one out, Kaston Vega singled to load the bases, and Mueller followed with a fly ball to right field that was dropped, allowing Carlos Vega and Duran to score and put Stamford in front, 3-2. Later in the frame, with the sacks again loaded after an intentional walk to Guzman, Cle Whitfield hit a pop fly that got lost in the sun by Skylar Minshew at shortstop. The ball hit the turf as an infield fly was declared for the second out, but Kaston Vega tagged at third base and raced home to extend Stamford’s cushion to 4-2.
Bangs trimmed the deficit to 4-3 in the third as Kade Minshew and Conner Bible singled, then Crowell laid down a bunt and reached safely to again fill the sacks with no outs. Newton was then plunked by a pitch to force home Kade Minshew with the third run, but Skylar Minshew, Kenny Cole and Ferguson were each retired as Stamford maintained a one-run lead.
In the bottom of the fourth, however, Stamford’s Mahsyn Alvarado singled and moved to third base on an errant pick-off attempt at first base. Carlos Vega then reached on an errant throw from second base, as Alvarado scored for a 5-3 lead. A wild pitch moved Carlos Vega to second, who scored when Duran reached on a fielding error by the Dragons. Leading 6-3, Stamford tacked on two more runs on a two-RBI triple by Hernandez, who later came home on a passed ball during Guzman’s at-bat.
Bangs hung around by scratching across single runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Duncan reached on an error and Scantling, in a pinch-runner role, scored the fourth run for the Dragons on a wild pitch during Bible’s at-bat. In the sixth, Bangs made the score 9-5 as Newton led off with a single and scored on Cole’s RBI sac fly.
The Dragons finished the season with a 20-10 record, a district championship, a bi-district championship and an area championship under Newton, who was a member of the last Bangs team to reach the UIL state tournament in 2013.
“It means a lot, but it’s not me, it’s the kids,” Newton said of the resurgence of Dragons baseball. “We’ve got great kids here and they fight to the very end. You can never count us out, because we’re going to fight.”
Stamford (24-6-1) advances to face New Home (31-3) in the regional semifinal round next weekend.
Saturday’s contest concludes the 2023-24 high school sports school year for Brown County.