DRIPPING SPRINGS — With two outs and the tying run on third base and a possible walk off win runner on first base, a strikeout ended the game for the Dripping Springs High School baseball team against the Calallen High School Wildcats March 6, but the rally killer in the Keith Tuck Memorial Baseball Tournament was a two-hour time limit for tournament games.
Sophomore Ryan Gamblin got his first varsity start on the mound for the Tigers when they faced the Wildcats at 11:30 a.m. Friday, March 7, the second day of the three-day tournament, and he just found out that morning. Gamblin ended the top of the second inning with his first varsity strikeout and went two-and-one-third innings, giving up one run on three hits.
The game was tied 1-1 with one out when Colby Wilson came in to relieve Gamblin. Calallen was caught stealing and the next batter was retired. The Tigers took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third inning when Dom Hurley drove in Jason Steele. The Wildcats tied it in the top of the fourth inning and with one out, had the bases loaded, but the Tigers turned a double play to end the threat and the score remained 2-2.
In the top of the fifth inning, Calallen took a 3-2 lead with an RBI double and a sacrifice fly extended the lead 4-2. Pitcher Cody McDaniel, who relieved Wilson, got a strikeout to end the top of the frame. The Tigers had a pair of pop ups for outs and a strikeout ending the fifth inning trailing 4-2.
In the top of the sixth inning, with a runner on first base and two outs, Harrison Vallo made a running catch in right field to hold the Wildcats scoreless. To lead off the bottom of the sixth inning for the Tigers, Hurley watched four pitches to take a walk and Traigh Perry walked on five pitches. The starting pitcher Drayton Mitchell for Calallen was replaced by Cody Andrade and a base hit single by Tristan Ciechanowicz loaded the bases.
With no outs, the Wildcats turned a double play when Connor Helms hit a ground ball to the shortstop, but the run scored to cut the lead 4-3 and left the tying run in Nick Tyndall at third base.
Jack Tyndall became the possible walk off win runner at first base when he walked on five pitches and the Wildcats made another pitching change. Andrade came out and Collier Carroll came in and got Bobby Wilkinson to strikeout swinging. There would be no seventh inning and the game ended 4-3, due to the time limit.
In Friday’s tournament night cap, the Tigers led Reagan High School 2-0 in the top of the seventh inning with two outs. A base hit scored a run, but the runner who would be the tying run was thrown out before reaching home plate, ending the game 2-1 Tigers. Dripping Springs lost Saturday’s early game 9-4 to Flower Mound Marcus High School, but the Tigers, four wins and two losses, finished the tournament with a one-pitch walk off home run by Connor Helms, while trailing the Sinton High School Pirates 5-4 in the bottom of the seventh inning.
The Tigers begin district play and will host Akins High School at 7 p.m. Friday, March 14, and Austin High School at 6 p.m. Monday, March 17.
