Steers baseball finishes 2-1 in home tourney

Steers baseball finishes 2-1 in home tourney News Staff Tue, 03/12/2024 - 1:39 pm

• (TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Junior Ryder Taylor swings at a strike and looks to make contact for a hit during one of Graham’s games in a weekend tournament. The Steers hosted a number of teams in Graham and went 2-1 in their games.
• (TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Junior Bruin Wright rounds third base and considers heading for home after hitting a long triple during one of his team’s games in a tournament over the weekend. The Steers hosted a tournament in Graham and went 2-1 in their games.
• (TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Sophomore Tripp Mahaney follows through on a swing during one of Graham’s games in a tournament they hosted over the weekend. The Steers played three games over the weekend with one canceled due to weather, and they went 2-1.
• (TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Pitcher Harison Brockway extends in his pitching motion during one of Graham’s games in a tournament they hosted over the weekend. In three games, the Steers went 2-1.

TC Gordon sports@grahamleader.com

After the Steers baseball team opened their district schedule a few days before, they took another weekend for a final tournament before fully diving into the rest of the season. Graham went 2-1 on a cold weekend, with one game canceled for lightning.

Listed below are results, information and some stats for each of the team’s three games over the course of two days.

Steers v. Paradise, (L) 7-3

Graham’s first game of the tournament was canceled Thursday night so the Steers opened their weekend with a matchup with the Panthers. Both sides of the ball took some work to get going and couldn’t pull out the win in this first contest.

Paradise went up 2-0 through one and a half innings but Graham answered with three runs in the bottom half of the second on a bases loaded walk from Harison Brockway and a 2-RBI single from Ty Thompson to go up 3-2.

Graham held the lead until the fifth inning when pitcher Tripp Mahaney ran into some trouble. He gave way to Thompson on the mound but the Panthers offense did enough to retake a 5-3 lead. They tacked on two more runs in the sixth inning and held on for the 7-3 win.

Ryder Taylor and Tate Loesch each finished 1-for-3 with a run scored, Thompson went 1-for-4 with two RBIs while Colter Johnson went 1-for-1 with a run.

Steers v. Pampa, (W) 4-2

It didn’t take long for the Steers to grab an early lead in their Saturday morning matchup against Pampa. The two pitchers from the night before combined for the first run as Thompson singled and Mahaney tripled to deep center a couple batters later to go up 1-0. Taylor hit a sacrifice fly to score Lucas Jilek, who was a courtesy runner for Mahaney who was catching in the game.

Over the next two innings the Harvesters tied the game with a run in each frame. On the mound, Brockway dealt with some command issues which led to three hit batters and a few walks. But he limited the damage and kept Graham tied.

In Graham’s half of the third inning, the Steers tacked on two more runs with strong awareness on the basepaths. Thompson stole home on a wild pitch and Johnson scored on a delayed double steal, in which Taylor took second and Johnson took home on the throw down.

Brockway regained control and dominated Pampa for the rest of the game until he ran into a bit of trouble in the final inning. But Bruin Wright came on in relief and secured the final out and the Steers’ win. Brockway pitched 6 ⅔ innings, allowed just two earned runs and struck out three batters.

Thompson finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored while Wright, Mahaney and Loesch each went 1-for-3 to tally Graham’s five hits.

Steers v. Childress, (W) 11-2

For their final game of the tournament, Graham ran away with a win over the Bobcats. The Steers’ big inning came in the third frame, where they put up seven runs to pull away from Childress.

After two and a half innings, however, Childress led 2-1. But in Graham’s half of the third inning, seven straight batters reached base to start the frame, and the first out was even a productive one as Jilek grounded out but scored Loesch.

For Graham’s seven runs in the inning, the offense recorded four singles, three walks and two hit-by-pitches. The run support was more than enough for the Steers’ pitchers, as Wright and Milton combined to throw five innings, gave up just the two earned runs and struck out 10 batters.

Loesch finished the game 1-for-2 with two runs scored and two RBIs, Thompson went 2-for-4 with two RBIs, Taylor batted 1-for-2 with three runs scored and an RBI and Mahaney went 2-for-3.

After a successful weekend, the Steers return to their district schedule with a matchup Wednesday, March 13 at home against Brownwood at 7 p.m. They’ll follow that up by hitting the road Thursday, March 14 to take on Glen Rose, also at 7 p.m.

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