By Joshua Young.
The Lehman High baseball team welcomed the Tivy Antlers for the second game of the series last Friday night.
After dropping the first game on Tuesday, the Lobos were looking to even the score and come away with a split on the week. In an emotional game, the Lobos were able to pull out the win in the bottom of the seventh inning and earn a 2-1 victory over the Antlers.
Taking the mound for the Lobos was senior Derek Cisneros, who continued his solid performance in district by tossing a complete game while giving up seven hits and only one walk. He quickly worked his way out of a first inning jam with the help of a double play groundball to first baseman Micah Tambur, who fielded, touched first and threw to second base for the easy tag.
Lehman High senior Micah Tambur (left) applies a tag on a Kerrville Tivy baserunner at first base. A late rally in the seventh gave Lehman a walk-off 2-1 win on Friday. (Photo by Lincoln Ramirez) |
In the bottom half of the first, the Lobos struck quickly sparked by a leadoff single by sophomore Luis Jiminez. He then moved to second on a wild pitch and was able to score as Joshua Tirk hit a sharp single up the middle.
That 1-0 lead held for most of the game as both teams squandered scoring chances throughout. Lehman contributed with several outstanding defensive plays to get out of innings including catcher Ryan Castillo picking off a runner on first base to get the Lobos out of a jam in the fourth inning.
Pitcher Cisneros then picked a runner of his own off in the fifth and struck out a Tivy hitter to end a threat.
“I couldn’t have done it tonight without my defense, they really picked me up. We played inspired and wanted to turn our season around tonight,” Cisneros said after the game.
When centerfielder Trace Gonzales made a controversial catch to end the sixth inning, it seemed the Lobos were cruising to a victory. However, in the top of the seventh, the Tivy bats woke up with only one out.
After a near foul out to the catcher, Tivy got a double to deep center followed by a hard single up the middle to tie the game and increase the nerves of the Lobo faithful.
With the game now tied, the Lobos were in position to win it with their bats in the bottom of the inning.
Lehman sent up pinch hitter Jesse Garcia who singled to get a runner on base. As the Lobos attempted to sacrifice a runner into scoring position, both Ryan Castillo and Martin Santos were able to reach on bunt singles, loading the bases for the sophomore Jiminez. The young second baseman stepped to the plate with poise, waited for a pitch he liked, and roped it into left field for the game-winning RBI and a victory for the Lobos.
Lehman improved its record to 2-4 in district with a critical series coming up against Lockhart this week, and coach Toby Robinson has faith that his team made some steps in the right direction.
“We played well in the first game [against Tivy], we played great defense and just struggled in one inning,” Robinson said. “Today, we were able to get runners on and move them around to scoring position. In that last inning, everyone did their job and we got the win.”
