Stangs drop two in district
The Madisonville baseball team dropped a pair of matchups to their top district opponents over the week with an 8-5 loss to Robinson April 13 and a 6-0 loss to China Spring on the road Monday. The latter matchup was originally scheduled to take place Friday, but was rescheduled due to weather.
“As young as we are, we are constantly learning from our mistakes, win or lose,” said head coach Adam Borgfeld Tuesday. “We just have to take these two unfortunate losses and try to find some positives in there and work with that.”
The Mustangs looked to get back on track Tuesday at MHS with their second matchup against Connally, who they blanked 13-0 April 1. They entered the matchup third in district play with just three matchups remaining until the postseason.
The Mustangs allowed eight late runs in the sixth and seventh innings in their second matchup against Robinson to fall 8-5 despite a late offensive surge. The game was scoreless entering the bottom of the fifth inning.
The Mustangs appeared to take control of the contest with a four-spot in the bottom of the fifth to draw first blood and jumped ahead of Robinson late. After a leadoff single by Tyler Moseman and a pair of walks, Cade Hathorn was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring home the first run of the night.
With the bases were still loaded, Brad Rudis ripped a double to left field to bring home Trent Murphy and Caden Miller. Cameron Thrower then brought home Hathorn on a sacrifice fly to centerfield to cap off the big inning.
Robinson’s bats, however, also awoke in the top half of the sixth. With one on and two out, they rattled off three straight hits (two singles and a double) to cut the deficit to one run. They would then take advantage of a Madisonville fielding error to tie the game and four.
In the bottom half, Moseman put the Mustangs on top for the second time in as many innings with a homerun over the left field fence.
A slew of free passes, however, allowed the Rockets their second straight breakout inning in the top of the seventh. Despite scoring four runs again to take an 8-5 lead, Robinson recorded just one total hit in the frame.
The Mustangs used four relievers to cover 1.1 innings of work after Rudis was removed with two retired in the sixth.
“That was a tough loss,” said Borgfeld. “What we’ve been preaching all year is play good defense and pitch strikes, and that was our weak point those last two innings. Unfortunately, it cost us the game in a crucial situation. Baseball is a rough game some days and it can humble you pretty quickly.”
On Monday, the Mustangs dropped their third district contest against highly-touted China Spring on the road after managing just three hits.
China Spring’s one big inning came in the bottom of the third, when they took advantage of four hits and three free passes to build an insurmountable lead over the Mustangs. They added another to win the contest 6-0.
“We didn’t hit the ball very well when we had some opportunities and they hit the ball when they had the opportunities,” said Borgfeld. “Besides (the third inning), it was a good game.”
The losses put Madisonville in third place in district entering play Tuesday with three losses, behind Robinson with two. Robinson still has to play undefeated China Spring one more time. A potential tie-breaker between the two teams for second place is yet to be determined.
Madisonville will conclude district play with a matchup at Mexia Friday and a home matchup against La Vega April 27. The Mustangs defeated both squads 4-0 and 10-2, respectively, in their first round of district play.
