Baseball: CL Hawks Blow Away Llano, 10-0
The Hawks continue their hitting spree as they run rule Llano on Saturday at the Hawk Nest, 10-0.
“We carry 18 players on our varsity and we wanted everyone to get some playing time,” Head Coach Victor Escamilla said in response to having a line-up with 6 players that are not normally starting in district games.”
On what the Coaches are looking for in a game that is sandwiched between those more important district battles, “We want to accomplish two things….work on our depth with our pitchers and prepare the team for playing on Saturdays. It is a different look when you get into the playoffs and sometimes a game is played on Saturday which has a different routine and this gives us some things to clean-up.”
It was a blustery day at The Nest and Vegas oddsmakers would have had a field-day getting odds for a chance that a player would hit a home-run against a wind that had gusts up to 35 mph and showing no mercy for airborne hits.
That was before the wind met it’s match, when Griffen Williams, took his place in the batter’s box. Hunter Anderson had a one out walk (now with 5 in two games) in the first inning followed by a double off the bat of a sizzling hot Chase Anderson putting two on and ready to be delivered back to the home plate.
Now back to Williams, on a two-two count, Williams hit a towering ball into a relentless wind that certainly hindered some distance but not enough to keep this ball on the field of play. It was Williams first home-run that had the EMS called to help revive this screaming baseball. See below:
This had CL enjoying a 3 run first inning that would not be threatened for the remainder of this game.
Pitcher Peyton McMullen started on the mound and had been active in all three contests this week. In this game with the Yellowjackets, McMullen walked just one batter and struck out 4 before being relieved by Hunter Anderson who closed this game with no damage and a Hawk shut-out.
This was the seventh shut-out this year for Canyon Lake who has had just 3 seasons of multiple no run games. The Lake has a total of 19 since records started being kept in 2009.
Year # of Shut-Outs 2013 2 games 2018 4 games 2020 3 games 2021 7 games
Being a mid-district contest, neither team used their 1st or 2nd starting pitcher based on needing those arms for district play.
But Llano does have some marquee wins that happened in tournaments when playing teams that would not be using the top of their pitching staff in later games of tournament play.
Llano Wins in Tourney Games Fredericksburg 10-5 3rd contest Fredericksburg 1-0 1st contest Pleasanton 8-6 3rd contest Burnet 11-3 3rd contest Stephenville 5-3 4th contest
All those games above were against 4A schools with one shut-out win using one of their best pitchers. Those other conquests would have been similar to the pitchers for this windy Saturday battle.
The knockout inning happened next when the first 6 batters reached first base safely leading to a 6 run stanza and 9-0 lead going into the third inning.
Dalton Stanley got the ball rolling with a single and finished the game with 3 hits leading the team.
“That boosted our confidence and we came out and gave others a chance and we capitalized on that opportunity,” Stanley deduced on this game after just sweeping Boerne. “We are playing more consistent and making plays and jumping on those pitches early. That has allowed us to battle back and now we think we can make a run.”
Williams would have another screaming ball that was knocked down by the wind this time but still got a run home when Hunter Anderson scored after the catch in deep left field.
Stanley’s rbi single in the 4th inning was enough to call the game when Hunter Anderson used 5 strikes to retire the Yellowjackets in order.
The second hit in this inning put a bruise on Hunter who was still able to track the ball down for the throw to first.
“It didn’t feel so good,” Hunter Anderson said with a grimace. “But I had to get the out and not panic.”
Not panicking has been the motif in a week that will go down as one (if not the best) week of Hawkball since games started. Two wins over Boerne and finishing off the week with a run-ruled contest with Llano.
This has Canyon Lake going into a week against a hapless Bandera team that has not registered a win this season.
There should be more eyes on this team as the season continues and if CL can continue in this manner then their worst case scenario would be facing Wimberley for baseball’s first District 28-4A Championship.
Go Hawks!!
Hawks By the Numbers: 1 More win than a loss in CL’s series with Bandera with a 11-10 record. 2 Wins over Boerne which resulted in a rush of brooms being bought in Comal County. 3 Hawks are in the All-Time Top 5 for scoring runs in a season. (Pauly 19, Hunter 18, LaLonde 16) 4 Hawks are in the All-Time Top 10 hits for a season. (Pauly 27, Chase 25, Schultz 23, McLain 22) 6 Game hitting streak for Chase Anderson. 8 Consecutive innings that Canyon Lake has been ahead of Boerne to be continued next year. 11 More strikeouts for Schultz (58) will give him the lead for a season. 14 Games reaching base safely for Chase Anderson. 18 Wins in a season is best passing 15 wins in 2010. 19 RBI by Williams that ranks 2nd for a season. 23 RBI by Pauly that ranks? 1st for a season. 30 Runs scored in CL’s last 14 innings. 1 2 3 4 5 R H E Llano 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 CL Hawks 3 6 0 1 X 10 9 1 ab r h bi 2b hr bb so misc Tyler Pauly 2 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 Hunter Anderson 1 2 0 1 0 0 2 0 Chase Anderson 2 3 2 1 1 0 1 0 Griffen Williams 1 1 1 4 0 1 0 0 sf ph Hayden Baker 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Gunnar Walker 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 cs ph Tanner Schultz 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Ty Sellers 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 roe Dalton Stanley 3 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 Bade Holland 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 Cody Jones 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 sac roe totals 19 10 9 8 2 1 5 4 pitching ip h r er bb so W L S Peyton McMullen (3-1) 3.0 2 0 0 1 4 1 0 0 Hunter Anderson 2.0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 totals 5.0 3 0 0 1 6 1 0 0