PARIS, Texas-The real Maud Cardinals baseball team showed up Saturday at Paris Chisms' Mustang Field for its Class 2A regional quarter-final series against Union Grove.
Maud got good pitching and hitting to win the best-of-three series with an 11-4 victory Saturday morning.
The 'imposters' were fortunate to win the opening game, 6-5, in eight innings Friday, but were trounced, 8-2, in the second game to even the series. In the second game, Maud committed four errors and managed only three hits.
Maud coach Joel Windham had a difficult pitching decision Saturday, whether to start sophomores Brian Blackburn or Payton Windham. He chose Blackburn.
Blackburn made the coach look good as he allowed just two hits through five innings, and had a string of retiring 11 straight before tiring in the sixth.
"He did an outstanding job," said coach Windham. "He had only pitched three innings this year, but did well in his one inning Friday night. I had hoped he would be able to get through five innings."
"We had to get the cobwebs out of our system after the poor performance Friday," Windham added. "We played like we're supposed to today with good pitching, defense, and hitting."
The Cardinals opened the scoring with two runs in the first inning after a walk, an error, and a single by Adam Roberts.
Union Grove got one run back in the bottom of the first on a walk, and singles by Noah Mayhan and Carson Daniels.
After issuing a walk to start the second frame, Blackburn then set down 11 straight batters.
Meanwhile, his teammates scored one in the third, two in the fourth, and took a commanding lead, 9-1, with four runs on five hits in the fifth.
Roberts led off the fifth with a single, and after an out, Windham tripled to drive in the first run.
Hunter Thomas reached on an error, Josh Luther singled, and Brooks Minter bounced a double over third for two runs. Gage Jones drew a walk, and Cade Townsend drove in the final run with a single.
Union Grove finally got to Blackburn in the sixth, scoring three runs on four hits.
Parker Thornton led off the inning with a single, Charles Gordy walked, and Mayhan hit into a force out at second. The Lions then put together three straight hits by Daniels, Kase Smith, and Kooper Smith. Windham then replaced Blackburn and shut down the Lions with four strikeouts.
Minter paced the Cardinals' 11-hit attack with three doubles, three RBI's, and scored three runs. Townsend had two doubles and a single.
Maud will play the Douglas-Gary winner next week.
Maud 201 241 1 - 11 11 0
Union Grove 100 003 0 - 4 6 4
Brian Blackburn, Payton Windham (6) and Brooks Minter. Dylan Borden, Cannon Cowen (4), Matthew Bower (4), and Kooper Smith.