by JOHN HATCH
The Rebels, who are only one win away from securing a first ever playoff berth under Hays head coach David Null, were denied again on Friday at home, as Boerne Champion squeaked by the Rebels 10-8.
The Rebels topped the leader board with 13 hits to the opponents’ 12, but the Chargers were more efficient with their at bats, only stranding four players on base while the Rebels left seven scoring opportunities on the field.
The Rebels sent Adrian Acosta and Alex Swofford to the mound but it was the clutch catch by the Boerne Chargers’ second baseman that gave Champion the win.
The Rebels took the early lead 3-0 through two innings. The Chargers scored six runs in the top of the third inning while the Rebels mustered two scores with home runs by Granger Studdard and Devin Palm. The Chargers added three more runs in the fourth inning and the Rebels only adding one additional score. The next two innings bore no fruit for either team.
The game came down to the end of regulation, when the Chargers got one more run to bring the score to 10-6 going into the bottom of the seventh. Palm led off for the Rebels with a double to right field. Nate Scott got to base on an error, moving Palm to third. Both later scored, bringing the score to 10-8.
Acosta, Justin Montana and Alex Robles loaded up the bases with only one out and the tying run on second base and the winning run on first. In Hollywood fashion, catcher JC Cerda made it to a full count and hit a screaming line drive that looked like it was a sure hit into right field. But at the last second the ball dropped into the outstretched glove of the Charger second baseman for out number two, and then stepped on second base for the third out.
