Frisco Wakeland Blasts Hallsville Baseball In Game 1 Of Regional Semifinal Series

DALLAS -- Hallsville turned in its most incomplete performance of the postseason Thursday in a 9-3 loss against Frisco Wakeland and will play the remainder of the Class 5A regional semifinal round under the gun.

The silver lining after a rough game at Dallas Jesuit's Wright Field is the series turns east for a 3 p.m. Game 2 at Tyler's Mike Carter Field. And the Bobcats have been in this position once before.

"It's something that we've done," head coach Scott Mitchell said. "We've experienced having to to win two on the same day. Or, in this case, being down one and having to win two. Our kids will bounce back."

Pitcher Coby Weaver and catcher Colton Oberthier try to sort out a bases-loaded jam in the second inning. Frisco Wakeland ultimately put up four runs in the frame. (Rob Graham, ETSN.fm)

Two weeks ago in the area round of the playoffs, the Bobcats (26-5) dropped a game in extra innings to Waxahachie in the early hours of May 17. That was the only loss they suffered prior to Thursday.

Hallsville rallied to down Waxahachie with two blowout wins later in the day.

Wakeland (21-10) didn't have to work as hard for its win against the Bobcats. To add insult to injury, it turned four double plays. Three ended innings.

Jack Underwood's go-ahead solo home run in the top of the second inning was erased with a Wakeland four-spot in the bottom half of the frame. The Metroplex team went on to add two more runs in the fourth and three final scores in the sixth.

Hallsville tacked on two runs in the seventh inning. Before Wakeland turned its final double play.

Coby Weaver, who pitched a no-hitter last week in the regional quarterfinal round against Lufkin, only made it through four innings. It took him 101 pitches to get there. He did strike out 10 batters during the outing though.

"He runs into an outing like that every now and then," Mitchell said. "I think that was just it tonight."

Wakeland pulled its starting pitcher, Jared Martin, after he loaded the bases 2 and 2/3 innings into his appearance. The team's pitching staff did not break 100 combined throws until the seventh inning, however.

Hallsville left the bases juiced in both the third and sixth innings.

It looked good early with Underwood's score. His shot nearly clanged off the left field foul pole, well above the five-foot wall.

Wakeland began a two-out rally in the bottom second with back-to-back walks. In fact, the ultimate winning run faced a 1-2 count priot to being let off the hook.

J.T. Thompson and Johnny Gonzales capitalized at the top of the order with back-to-back, two-RBI slow rollers through the middle gap.

In the bottom of the fourth, Thompson walked and Gonzales advanced both of them into scoring position with a long single and advanced while Hallsville attempted to tag out Thompson at third base. Martin knocked them in with a hit to right field.

Wakeland loaded the bases with no outs in its share of the sixth inning. All three runners ultimately got home. Martin recorded his game-best third RBI in the span.

The Bobcats did some cosmetic work in the final frame.

Jacob Walker reached base on a fielding error and Ty Meissner plated him with a double. Meissner came home with one out on a wild pitch a moment later.

Logan Bailey followed the scoring up with a walk, but the game ended with Underwood's fly ball to center field and Bailey's courtesy runner caught in no man's land between second and third base for the final out.

"It was disappointing tonight," Mitchell said. "They made us pay when we didn't throw strikes and worked from behind in the count. They had some big innings on us. That's what happens when you play good teams. If you give them an opportunity, they'll take advantage of it. That's exactly what they did tonight."

Dylan Delashaw slides home to give Frisco Wakeland a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning. (Rob Graham, ETSN.fm)