Lehman pitcher Justin Penney was taken out of game two of the Lobos’ playoff series for precautionary measures after being grazed by a line drive. Lehman was swept in the series by the power-hitting Boerne Champion Chargers. (Photo by Judy Cooper)
By KERRY BARBOZA
BOERNE – For the second year in a row, Lehman’s baseball season has come to an end much sooner than the Lobos would have liked.
Last year – Lehman’s first ever venture into the baseball playoffs – the Lobos fell to eventual state champs Brenham in the opening round. This season, the Lobos were swept in the first round by Boerne Champion, a team that boasts 11 batters hitting .400 or better.
Champion’s hitting prowess was on display in the best-of-three series as the Chargers knocked out 31 hits, scored 29 runs and collected 28 RBIs in nine innings at the plate.
Champion won the first game Thursday night in Lockhart, 19-3, behind 20 hits, including four home runs and six doubles. On Friday, the Chargers closed it out at home with a 10-0 victory in 4.5 innings on 11 hits.
Lehman coach Toby Robinson said his Lobos have drawn tough opponents to start the playoffs in each of their two postseason appearances.
“We got to play a great team last year in Brenham, and this year coach (Chuck) Foster’s group at Champion is excellent as well,” he said. “Hopefully that will motivate the team to move up the rankings and not have to play a No. 1 (seed).”
With eight freshmen and sophomores, along with five juniors on its 16-man playoff roster, Robinson said he hopes the experience they gained this year will help the team heading into next season.
“You can’t get too mad because we’re very, very young,” he said. “Hopefully they had a great experience and learned a lot.”
Robinson started freshman Justin Penney on the mound Friday and Penney held the Chargers in check early. Champion was up 3-0 in the second, but the Lobos missed a few opportunities to score in the first two frames that might have made things even tighter.
In the first inning, the Chargers turned a double play after Joey Hernandez reached on a single to get out of the inning.
In the second frame, Chris Tello was walked and Justin Vajgert reached on an error to give the Lobos two runners on with no outs. The next batter, Rudy Martinez, moved the runners over a base with a sacrifice bunt, but from there, Champion pitcher Josh Holcomb struck out the next two to retire the side.
Robinson said if they could have scratched for a run or two in either inning that might have changed the tone of the game.
“It would have been a little momentum,” he said. “When we didn’t get those runners in it kind of took the breath out of them, but they did a great job, I can’t complain.”
Champion busted the game open in the fourth with a huge inning. The Chargers sent 12 batters to the plate and recorded six hits and seven runs for the 10-0 lead.
Penney left the game for precautionary measures in the fourth after he was grazed in the head by a sharply hit ball up the middle. Nick Cerda entered in relief and finished out the inning.
Aaron Sheckler had Lehman’s other hit in the game, a single in the top of the fifth to go along with Hernandez’s single in the first.
The three seniors for the Lobos are Braxton Rico, Hernandez and Tello.
“We have three seniors that work hard and are great examples for our kids,” Robinson said. “If everybody works as hard as the seniors do, we’ve got nothing to worry about.”
