Justin Vajgert and the Lehman baseball team was riding high after a win over Hays and four victories at the AISD Tournament over the weekend, but Canyon was up to the challenge in a 18-7 victory over the Lobos Tuesday night. (Photo by Judy Cooper)
by MARK CAUL
The Lehman Lobos carried a five-game winning streak into Tuesday night’s District 27-4A tilt with hot-swinging Canyon.
But after the dust settled some three hours later, it was the Cougars who emerged with a wild 18-7 win at Lobo Field.
Canyon scored 11 runs in the final inning.
“We made a couple of bad pitches and they made us pay for them,“ Lehman head coach Toby Robinson said. “The game was a lot closer than the score indicated.”
The Cougars smacked six home runs in the contest, including two from junior catcher Tanner Hill, who blasted a three-run shot to ignite an 11-run Canyon outburst in the top of the seventh inning to propel the Cougars to the win.
Canyon sent 12 batters to the plate against reliever Justin Vajgert, who admittedly didn’t have his best stuff.
“I was a little bit stiff because I didn’t warm-up that well,” Vajgert said. “But I don’t want to use that as an excuse. We had a lot of confidence coming into the game.”
The Lobos were able to mount a short rally in the bottom of the seventh by scoring six unearned runs off Canyon reliever Carsen Bernard.
“I told our team after the game that I considered this to be a closer game,” Robinson said. “We gave up some runs in the last inning on a few mistakes and then we scored a few on some stuff we didn’t earn.”
The loss snapped a five-game streak for the Lobos (8-7, 1-1 27-4A) who were able carry the momentum of last week’s first-ever win over Hays into the AISD Tournament over the weekend where they swept through the tournament unbeaten with wins over LBJ, Reagan, Akins and Lanier to capture the championship.
“We just have to go back to work and get back on track,” Robinson said. “This is a team that does a good job of bouncing back after a loss.”
Lehman travels to Smithson Valley Friday to play a game scheduled to begin at noon before hosting Alamo Heights next Tuesday night.
