Weatherford Christian advances to state baseball final, Temple Christian falls in extras

Weatherford Christian 7, Fort Worth Covenant Classical 5

A five-run first inning propelled the Lions over the Cavaliers in the TAPPS Division 5 state baseball semifinals on Tuesday at Clay Gould Ballpark at UT-Arlington.

The Lions, back-to-back TAPPS D5 state champs, then held off Covenant’s rally to advance.

They will go for a three-peat when they play Shiner St. Paul in the title game at 9 a.m. Wednesday. They won last season and in 2019. There was no state tournament in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.

St. Paul defeated Bracken Christian 7-3 in the early semifinal.

Weatherford Christian started the game with its first three batters reaching base, then on the next pitch, senior Ethan Smith ripped a pitch to left field that drove in two.

The Lions loaded the bases again after Rand Green drew a walk.

Again, on the next pitch, Blake Heid hit a two-run single to right center that pushed the lead to 4-0. Weatherford Christian tacked on one more when Covenant threw a ball past third base.

The Lions upped the lead to 6-0 in the top of the second.

Covenant Classical scored a half inning later on an RBI fielder’s choice from Lucas Tungate. A second run came in the third when sophomore James Pickett ripped a two-out single to right.

Weatherford Christian would lead 7-2 after four, but the Cavs scored the next three runs to get close. Covenant got within 7-4 after the Lions committed one of their five errors.

Then the Cavs made it 7-5 on an RBI sac fly to center.

Covenant then had runners at first and second base with no outs in the bottom of the seventh. But the Lions pulled out a trick play when Smith was on the mound and pretended to pick off a runner at second.

Smith faked the throw and the runner started for third before being tagged midway through the base path. Then Smith induced a grounder to second for the last out.

Smith went 2 for 3 with a run scored and four RBI. He also came in relief for Green and gave up one run on three hits and struck out three in three innings of work. Green allowed two runs on four hits and struck out four.

Pickett led the Cavs, who made their first trip to the state baseball tournament, by going 3 for 4.

Nathaniel Bennett had two hits as Covenant out hit the Lions 11-7.

Midland Classical 12, Fort Worth Temple Christian 8 (8)

Down to their final three outs and trailing by four in the top of the seventh, the Knights roared back with four runs in the inning and then added four more in the eighth to shock the Eagles in the TAPPS D4 state semifinals on Tuesday.

Midland Classical advances to the D4 title game to play Temple Central Texas Christian at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at Clay Gould Ballpark.

Central Texas shut out Waco Reicher 6-0 in the first semifinal.

Trailing 4-2 after four, the Eagles put runners on the corners to start the fifth inning. Landon Kille tied the game at 4-4 when he sliced a pitch that landed just inside the right field line for a two-run triple.

Midland Classical switched pitchers and on the first pitch, Broad Coen ripped one past third base to score Kille and give the Eagles a 5-4 lead.

Coen reached third and with runners on the corners, Temple Christian attempted the double steal and Coen beat the throw home for a 6-4 lead.

Temple Christian loaded the bases again with no outs and Bear Herak hit an RBI single to left that extended the lead to 7-4. After the Knights got their first out, the Eagles upped it to 8-4 on a hit by pitch with the bases loaded.

During the inning, the Eagles brought up 12 batters and scored six runs on seven hits. But the Knights scored on a hit batter and a walk to pull within 8-6 in the seventh. Then with two outs, they got a two-run single that one hopped the second baseman and tied the game.

The Knights took the lead in the eighth with an RBI sac fly and then got a two-run double and RBI single to up it to 12-8.

Wilson Russell, Grief, Coen and Herak all had multiple hits for the Eagles. Five players had at least one RBi with Kille and Grief bringing home two.

David Smith started on the mound for Temple Christian and allowed two earned runs on four hits and struck out five in six innings of work. After giving up four runs in the first three innings, Smith kept the Knights scoreless on one hit in his final three frames.