Sweemy baseball game story from Saturday's game

By DON CUDD sports@thefacts.com | 0 comments

SWEENY — The Sweeny Bulldogs escaped a nightmare on the baseball diamond Saturday.

Sweeny rode a team effort in a 6-0 clinching Game 3 victory Saturday afternoon in the Class 4A Region IV area round at home.

Sweeny (23-6) moves on to play El Campo in the quarterfinal round after the Ricebirds swept Wimberley.

“I’m glad I don’t have to (name an MVP for the series),” Sweeny coach David Luster said. “That’s the thing about 4A baseball. You don’t have any specialized guys; you don’t have any pitchers only. These guys can flat out play every position.”

The third game was truly a full-team effort with the Bulldog bats coming alive for a four-run explosion in the third inning. Mitchell Ullom, the winning pitcher in Friday’s 9-1 Game 1 victory, highlighted the scoring with a triple deep into the center-field gap, knocking in Hayden Fails and Shawn Kelley.

But the Bulldogs had set up shop before that. Jonathan Svoboda doubled over the Taylor right fielder’s head to start the inning against pitcher Colton Mannella. He then advanced to third on a single by Cody Erikson and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jairon Ordonez. Erickson stole second and scored when Fails reached base on a single.

Jacob Mathis was instrumental in both of the Bulldogs’ other runs. He singled with one out in the first inning, stole second, then scored on Austin Smith’s single. Mathis singled again in the fifth, driving in Kelley from second.

“Mathis came up absolutely huge this weekend,” Luster said.

Meanwhile, Sweeny pitcher Brett Bullard and the rest of the Bulldog defense held the Ducks in check. Bullard chocked up four strikeouts and allowed just five hits, all singles, in his complete-game shutout.

Bullard relied on some steady fielding throughout the game, particularly from Erickson at shortstop, Mathis at second and Dax McCleary in center field.

“We made some pretty good plays, so I just threw strikes and tried not to walk anybody,” Bullard said. “My curveball was working pretty good, so I was just sticking with that.”

The Ducks threatened in the fifth, loading the bases with a single and two walks to set up a two-out showdown between Bullard and Taylor’s Ryland Cox. But Bullard won the battle with relative ease, setting Cox down on three straight pitches.

“Bullard is as good as a lot of people’s No. 1 pitchers,” Luster said. “I’ve been saying that all year long. He can just flat out pitch. If we go into a Game 3 with him on the mound, I feel good about our chances.”

“The Ricebirds are a good ballclub,” Luster said. “They’re going to put pressure on you and make you beat them. It’ll be a good series.”

Taylor finished the season at 24-7.

TAYLOR 3 SWEENY 0: Sweeny faced Taylor’s top pitcher, Justin Rumley, in Game 2 of the series and found out how good he was.

Rumbley held the Bulldogs to four hits and shut them out to send the series into a clinching game.

“He (Rumley) did a very good job keeping us off balance and throwing strikes,” Luster said. “That kid was really good.”

Rumley improved his season record to 12-2 while his ERA fell below 1.00.

“He’s been as solid as they come for us all season,” Taylor coach Jeremy Mueller. “He’s definitely our ace.”

The only notable Sweeny hit was a double off the left-field fence by Ullom in the second inning.

Sweeny left Ullom stranded at second, and that was all the offense Sweeny could muster off the crafty right-hander.

Rumley’s performance was just enough to outshine a solid outing by Svoboda, who gave upt three runs on three hits.

After giving up three walks that led to Taylor’s runs in the first two innings, Svoboda settled in to keep the game within reach.

Beginning in the third inning, Svoboda faced just one more than the minimum number of batters through the last four innings.