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Snyder’s Cameron Smith (left) takes a lead off second base while Graham shortstop Alex Strawbridge watches a pitch during Thursday’s bi-district playoff game at Moffett Field. The Steers scored two runs in the bottom of the 11th inning Saturday to claim a 9-8 win to win the series.
It came down to a sacrifice fly Saturday afternoon.
With the game tied 8-8 in the bottom of the 11th inning with the bases loaded, Graham’s Luke Stone hit a sacrifice fly to score Nolan Carroll and the winning run over Snyder. The Steer (19-12-2) swept the Class 4A bi-district baseball playoff series with the Tigers (10-16) and will meet Argyle in the area round later this week.
Snyder found itself trailing 7-2 after giving up five runs in the fourth inning on Saturday and like Game 1, the Tigers battled back to force extra inning.
The Tigers began the comeback with four runs in the sixth inning to cut the Graham lead to 7-6. Trey DeLoera led off the inning by reaching on an error and Cameron Smith followed with a single.
Jake Chavez walked to load the bases for Drevian Hernandez, who hit into a fielder’s choice forcing DeLoera out at home.
Ryan Rodriguez then doubled to score Smith and Chavez to cut the lead to 7-4. Derek Dominguez walked to load the bases for the second time in the inning and Bryce Ford walked on four straight pitches to score Hernandez.
Leeroy Tavarez hit into a fielder’s choice to Alex Strawbridge and on the play Rodriguez scored to pull the Tigers to within one run.
The Tigers tied the game in the top of the seventh inning when Hernandez hit a sacrifice fly to score Smith.
The score remained 7-7 until the top of the 11th inning. With the bases loaded and no outs, Derek Dominguez hit a sacrifice fly to score Chavez to give Snyder an 8-7 lead.
Graham started the home half of the 11th inning with Seth Shook getting hit by a pitch. Courtesy runner Trey Overcash was able to advance to third base on two balk calls on Smith. Carroll and Owen Loesch then drew back-to-back walks to load the bases and James Witherspoon was hit by a pitch to score Overcash. Facing a 1-2 count with one out, Stone hit the sacrifice fly to score the winning run.
Snyder fell behind 1-0 in the first inning on Witherspoon’s RBI single. The Tigers tied the game at 1-1 in the second when Smith drew a bases loaded walk to score Sammy Sosa.
In the top of the third inning, Snyder took the lead on Leeroy Tavarez’ RBI single. But the Steers responded with the tying run in the bottom of the inning when Corey Ballow hit into a one-out fielder’s choice and Carroll scored.
The Steers took the 7-2 lead in the fourth on two outs, highlighted by Stone’s two-run single and Loesch’s RBI single.
Snyder hitters: Ryan Rodriguez 1 double, 2 RBIs; Leeroy Tavarez 1 single, 2 RBIs; Cameron Smith 1 single, 1 RBI; Jake Chavez 1 double, 1 stolen base; Drevian Hernandez 1 single; Bryce Ford, 1 single; Derek Dominguez 1 RBI; Trey DeLoera 2 stolen bases.
Snyder pitchers: Jake Chavez 3.2 innings, 7 runs, 4 earned runs, 9 hits, 4 walks; Leeroy Tavarez 6.1 innings, 0 runs, 3 hits, 7 strikeouts, 6 walks; Cameron Smith 0.2 innings, 2 runs, 2 earned runs, 1 walk.