The Littlefield Wildcats’ varsity baseball team’ shocked the Region on Friday, when they sent the 3A #6 Bushland Falcons home with a, 7-4, loss at Wilder Field in Plainview on Friday to claim the Class 3A Area Championship.
With the win, the Wildcats improved to 15-10 overall on the year.
“This is a huge win for our program,” Head Coach Jett Hartley said. “I’ve been apart of some huge wins in Littlefield’s history and this is up there with playing the Shallowater’s. To come in the #6 team ranked in the state, scouting them was tough because they’re just good, all around good. They have great pitching, great fielding, they’re just really good at what they do.”
He added, “We got a one-gamer, which is exactly what we wanted, our backs were against the wall, nobody was rooting for us; these guys made history in my opinion. This is a great group of young men and they deserve every bit of this. I can’t think the seniors, and just everybody for what they’ve done this year.”
In the top of the first inning, Markus Rosales drew a lead-off walk and Isaiah Rodriguez followed it up with a bunt past the pitchers mound to an empty second base position, that allowed Rosales to go first-to-third, putting runners on the corners for the Wildcats. Major McNeese hit into a fielder’s choice to Max Rodriguez at second base, who got the force out at second, but McNeese was safe at first as Rosales scored to put the Wildcats in front, 1-0.
Brenden Bowman hit a chopper to the left side that was fielded and bobbled by Dawson Jaco, putting runners on first and second, as Ja’Den Williams came on as the courtesy runner for the catcher. McNeese stole third on a pitch, as Williams advanced to second, but Ian Mendez hit a shot to Cannon Melban on the mound who got McNeese into a rundown between third and home, before he was tagged out for out number two. After the play, Williams stole third on a heads-up play and Mendez advanced to second.
Brayden Redman drew a walk to load the bases for Littlefield, but Chip Green popped up in foul territory to Noah Krause, who made a catch over the first-base side fence to retire the side.
In the home half of the first, Kade Gavina singled though the left side to open things up for Bushland and Rodriguez followed it up with a single through the left, but Gavina was canned at third by Gabe Montalvo, as Rodriguez advanced to second on the play with one out. Rodriguez tried to steal third on a pitch in the turf, but he was picked off at third by Bowman, Green was there for the tag for out number two.
Jaxon Fetsch ripped a double over McNeese in center field and he took third on a bad pick-off to second by Rosales, before Brecken Adams popped up to Mendez in front of second base to end the inning.
The Wildcats picked up where they left off offensively to begin the second inning, as Gabriel Villanueva roped a double down the right-field line to lead things off. Adam MacDonald hit a sacrifice grounder to Krause at first, who tagged his bag for the out, as Villanueva advanced to third on the play.
Villanueva would score on a passed ball to push their lead to, 2-0, before Rosales hit a shot back at the Melban on the mound, who got the out at first, for out number two. Rodriguez would strike out swinging for out number three to retire the side.
In the bottom half of the inning, Rosales got Ty Purcell to strike out looking for out number one, before giving up a walk to Jaco. Melban singled through the left side, as Colton Reynolds came on as the courtesy runner for the pitcher. The runners advanced to second and third on a ball away from Bowman behind the plate, and Stratton Malloy hit a sacrifice fly to Montalvo in left field for the second out of the inning. Jaco tagged up and scored from third to cut the lead in half, 2-1, as Reynolds stayed at second with two outs.
Krause would fly out to McNeese in center field to end the inning.
Both teams went scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning when Mendez gave up a lead-off single to Purcell. Jaco drew a walk and Melban hit into a fielder’s choice to Green at shortstop, who made a bad throw to third to load the bases, as Reynolds came on to run for the pitcher.
Purcell scored on a passed ball to tie the game, 2-2, as the runners moved up to third and second and Jaco scored on a wild pitch to give Bushland the lead, 3-2. Malloy hit a sacrifice liner to Montalvo in left field, but Reynolds was able to tag-up and score from third to stretch their lead to, 4-2, with one out.
Green relieved Mendez on the mound and got Krause to fly out to McNeese in left-center field for out number two and he got Gavina to fly out to Montalvo in left field to end the inning.
Both teams went scoreless in the fifth and in the top of the sixth, Melban was relieved on the mound by Jaco for Busland. Redman was hit by a pitch to lead-off the inning for Littlefield and Green hit a shot off of the glove of Krause at first base, as Redman advanced to third, hopping over the third baseman to avoid the tag, leaving runners on second and third for the Wildcats.
Villanueva struck out looking for out number one, but MacDonald hit into a fielder’s choice to Krause at first, who went home with the ball, but Redman beat the throw with a slide to cut the lead to, 4-3, with runners on the corners. Rosales drew a walk to load the bases and Rodriguez followed it up with an RBI walk to tie the game, 4-4, before Jaco was relieved on the mound by Malloy for the Falcons.
McNeese ripped a two-RBI single to left-center field, moving Rodriguez to third, as Littlefield reclaimed the lead, 6-4. Bowman connnected with a check swing that floated over the second baseman for an RBI-single, making the score, 7-4, as Williams came on to run for the catcher. Mendez would strike out swinging for out number two, but Redman was hit again to load the bases for the Wildcats. However, Green would pop up to Krause in foul territory at first base, who made another catch over the fence to retire the side.
The score remained, 7-4, going into the bottom of the seventh, as Green got Malloy to fly out to McNeese in center field for out number one. He gave up back-toback walks to Krause and Gavina, but he got Rodriguez to chop out to Redman at second base for out number two, as the runners advanced to second and third. But, Fetsch would fly out to McNeese in center field, as the celebration commenced and the Wildcats slayed Bushlaned, 7-4, to take the 3A Area Championship.
Rosales started on the bump for the Wildcats pitching 2.1 innings, giving up five hits, one walk and one run, while earning one strike out. Mendez came on in relief, pitching 1.2 innings, giving up two walks, one hit and three runs.
Green came on to close the game, pitching 3.1 innings giving up two walks in the contest.
“Our mentality coming in and what we’ve told our pitchers all week was go in there and empty the tank. We saw some little flaws in their hitting, they struggle with offspeed. Markus is a real good offspeed guy and can get ahead with it and we told him we wanted him to go out there get us nine outs and will move on. The same with Ian and the same with Chip; it was a tremendous effort by those guys to come in and do exactly what they were told to do.
He added, “Hitting-wise, we knew Bushland was going to come in and throw velo on the outter half, so all week we set the machine up on the outter half. The first day it looked a little scarry, I’m not going to lie, but as the week went on, we just told them stick with the process. They came out today and did exactly what they were coached to do. I think baseball involves a little bit of luck and God was on our side and luck was on our side tonight.”
The Wildcats will take on the Shallowater Mustangs in the Class 3A Regional Quarterfinals, starting Thursday with Game one at 7 p.m. Game two will be Saturday, May 18th at 12 p.m. with game three to follow if necessary.
All games will be played at Lubbock- Cooper.