Texas High's baseball team went into Tuesday's District 16-5A game with Hallsville needing a win, or a Marshall victory over Pine Tree to clinch a berth into the playoffs.
The Tigers (13-13, 5-6) failed on Part 1, losing a heartbreaker to Hallsville on the THS diamond, 2-1. They got the necessary help in Part 2 with Marshall beating Pine Tree, 3-1.
Making the contest even more frustrating for the Tigers was the way Hallsville (23-4, 9-2) scored the decisive run on three walks, a wild pitch and hit batsman.
"There pitcher (Blaine Parker) threw a really great game; it was a really good high school baseball game," THS coach John McClure said. "We made a lot of pitching decisions tonight on the unknown. If Pine Tree had beaten Marshall we wanted to have everyone available. That's why we kept a close eye on the pitch counts.
"We had a base-running blunder, one of the rules we always talk about. Those things happen in baseball, and that runner has been good for us all year. Little things add up in baseball, and you always wonder if we had just done this. Hallsville is a really good team and will be first or second in our district."
The Bobcats' first run was unearned, coming in the first off THS ace Colby Adkins. Ty Meissner singled to center on the fifth pitch of the game and advanced to second when the outfielder bobbled the ball. Meissner moved up on Blaine Parker's grounder to first, and scored when Logan Durrett grounded out to third.
Texas High scored its' only run in the second after a two-out single to center by Cole Christen. Three pitches later losing pitcher Kyle Choate smashed a drive off the right field fence to a triple to tie the game at 1-1.
The Bobcats pretty much dominated the rest of the game, THS missing two-out scoring opportunities in the third and fifth innings.
Jakob Hearne and Chris Sutton had back-to-back singles in the third with two outs. Parker escaped the threat by getting Conner Allred on a grounder to first.
Ruben Ramirez reached on the Bobcats' only error in the fifth, and was sacrificed to second by Eric Sutton. Pinch-runner Cole Jeans was out trying to reach third on a grounder to shortstop, and Parker got another groundout to get out of the inning.
Adkins was on a pitch count against the Bobcats, leaving the game after four innings and 59 pitches.
Choate replaced him, striking out the first batter he faced, and eventually the side in the fifth.
However, he also hit a batter, walked two and threw a wild pitch to score what proved to be the winning run.
Meisnner and Colton Oney had two hits each for the Bobcats. Parker worked six innings, allowing four hits, walking one and striking out eight, all swinging. Right-hander Mason Higginbotham got the final three outs for a save.
The Tigers play at Pine Tree Friday.
Hallsville 100 010 0 - 2 5 1
Texas High 010 000 0 - 1 4 1
Blaine Parker, Mason Higginbotham (7) and Dylan Bailey; Colby Adkins, Kyle Choate (5), Jakob Hearne (7) and Jordan Thomas. WP-Parker; LP-Choate.