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StangMom2
03-28-2005, 09:34 AM
Sports


Mustangs score in 10th inning to beat Snyder, 3-2

SNYDER -- The Sweetwater High School baseball team is starting to get pretty good at this extra-inning stuff.

For the second straight game Friday, the Mustangs (12-5) had to go more than the usual seven innings to subdue an op-ponent. But while beating Has-kell 6-5 in eight innings three days earlier at Newman Park helped get Sweetwater back in a winning frame of mind, the satisfaction couldn't compare with beating Snyder -- on its home field -- to start district.

And that's exactly what the Mustangs did, 3-2, in a wild 10-inning thriller that wasn't deci-ded until the very final pitch in a 3-hour, 38-minute marathon at the Tigers' Moffett Field.

Steven Palma scored the win-ning run for Sweetwater after drawing a two-out walk in the top of the 10th. He advanced to second on Brittan Pittman's in-field single, then stole third and came home with what proved to be the winning run after a throwing error on the play by Snyder catcher Eric Martinez.

The main reason it took so long to finally decide a winner was the pitching, with Sweet-water's Kendal Carrillo and Snyder's Ryan Mitchell hooking up in a fantastic mound duel for the first eight innings.

Carrillo struck out 18 and al-lowed just three hits, and had a shutout until Snyder scored its only two runs on back-to-back doubles in the sixth inning.

Mitchell fanned 14 and gave up only five hits, and was in to-tal control after the third inning when Tripp Maxwell's two-run single scored KiKi Johnson and Louis Palacios to give Sweet-water a 2-0 lead. Johnson was a courtesy runner for Mustang catcher Justin Adames, who hit a leadoff single which was fol-lowed by Palacios' double.

After Carrillo and Mitchell departed, the pitching drama shifted to Sweetwater's Shawn Kincaid and Snyder's Lance Day, who were both quite effec-tive although in different ways.

Day had the better stat line, striking out five and allowing just one hit in his two innings. But Kincaid, with some offen-sive help in the top of the 10th and some truly clutch pitching when it mattered, emerged as the winner.

Kincaid got out of a jam in the ninth when he alertly threw to Carrillo -- who had replaced him at third base -- in time to pick off Snyder's Cade Simpson for the third out. But he found himself in an even bigger jam the next inning while trying to protect a one-run lead.

Down 3-2, Snyder used a single and two walks to load the bases with no outs.

But instead of wilting, Kin-caid came back stronger than ever. He struck out Day, retired Brent Bollinger on a fly ball and brought the Sweetwater fans to their feet when he struck out Cale Lancaster to end the game.

It was quite an introduction to District 4-3A baseball for the Mustangs' first-year coach, Che Hendrix, whose team will host Clyde this Tuesday at 7 p.m.

"That's the way I figured it would be in this district," Hen-drix said.

"Kendal threw an unbelieva-ble game for us with 18 strikeouts. Then Shawn came in and shut the door. It was a battle from start to finish."

It was also a struggle for the most part offensively, although Sweetwater did out-hit Snyder 6-5. The defense, however, was flawless and the Mustangs did not commit an error while Sny-der had four, including the one which allowed Palma to score the winning run in the 10th.

"We had some missed oppor-tunities, but you've got to give credit to the kids for staying positive," Hendrix said. "It was a great, great ballgame; it feels like we just won the World Se-ries. But we're just 1-0 (in district). We've got to be ready to come back Tuesday night."

For a long time it appeared that two runs would be more than enough for Sweetwater to win, as Carrillo -- who struck out every player in the Snyder starting lineup at least once -- didn't allow his first hit until Bollinger tripled with one out in the fifth inning.

Carrillo lost his shutout in the sixth when Snyder rallied to tie the game 2-2, but then held the Tigers hitless in the seventh and eighth while racking up six more strikeouts.

However, Snyder had threats in both innings. The Tigers left runners stranded at first and third in the seventh, and also left two runners on base in the eighth.