TEXARKANA, Texas - Liberty-Eylau remained undefeated in district play with a 7-3 win over Pleasant Grove in a cross-town rivalry, District 15-4A baseball game on Friday at H.E. Markham Park.
"My guys performed the way they have all year," Leopards head coach Zach Fowler said. "They came out and got after it. Pleasant Grove has a good ballclub. They are really well coached. They gave us some good opportunities tonight to score and luckily we were able to take advantage of it.
"Getting the first win of our series is big, but we have to see them two more times. They are going to be ready to play the next time, I promise. Parker Goodman pitched well. He kind of had a bad outing his last time out so tonight he redeemed himself. Parker got himself back going and did a great job for us tonight."
Goodman started on the hill for Liberty-Eylau (11-4, 3-0), earned the win, threw five innings, struck out four, walked one and allowed three runs. The Hawks' starter, Nathan Hutch, absorbed the loss, tossed two innings, allowed four runs on three hits, walked a pair, struck out two and hit a batter.
"Liberty-Eylau was ready to play," Pleasant Grove head coach Riley Fincher said. "They came out and attacked the game. Coach Fowler and his coaching staff have done a great job in getting his kids fired up. Our guys came out flat, and we have to have more fire and passion. Coach Fowler and his staff did an outstanding job. His players did an outstanding job, and they beat us tonight. Hats off to them.
"I thought we had a couple of guys who competed at the plate. We still have to figure it out. On the mound, we gave away too many free passes. We will come back to work on Saturday and hopefully turn it around on Tuesday."
The three Pleasant Grove (12-4, 2-1) pitchers walked seven Leopard batters. Of the seven walked batters, three scored a run for Liberty-Eylau.
Bryce Blackwell singled with two on in the second for Liberty-Eylau to juice the bases. Colby Brooks, who had walked, scored on a fielder's choice to put the Leopards up, 1-0. Hunter Burks scored on a wild pitch, and Braylon Blair hit an RBI single to right to give L-E a 3-0 lead after the second frame.
Gage Bellati singled to left and scored with the bases loaded on Blackwell's RBI after he was hit by a pitch to give the Leopards a 4-0 edge in the third. Goodman walked with the bases loaded, and a batter later, Blair smacked a sacrifice fly RBI to deep left to extend the L-E lead, 6-0.
Brock Bearden led off the fourth with a single to left center for the Hawks. Alex Galvan laced one in to right field, the fielder misplayed the ball as Bearden scored for Pleasant Grove's first run. Galvan came home on a fielder's choice to inch the Hawks closer, 6-2.
Brooks popped in a sacrifice RBI flyball to right to score Zach Brush, who had singled to right center, as the Leopards took a 7-2 lead after four frames of action.
Bearden, who had walked, scored on Galvan's infield RBI single to bridge the gap for Pleasant Grove, 7-3, in the sixth. The Hawks had just one base runner in the final frame, Traveler Couch, who singled on a deep roller to short with two outs.