CL Hawks Salvage Slugfest Tourney with a 5-3 Win over McCollum.

CL Hawks start their rest before another busy week as CL hosts their tournament on Thursday.

Canyon Lake salvaged their last South Texas Slugfest Tournament game with a win over SA McCollum, 5-3.

Let’s Go Hawks and Hit’em Hard

This Cowboy team had waltzed through this same tournament undefeated (4-0) before facing a Hawk team that had just treaded water in their 4 games with a 2-2 record.

Canyon Lake used Pitcher Tanner Schultz in this contest and he secured his 4th win of the season while not giving up any earned runs and striking out 8 Cowboys while going the distance.

“We played 5 games in 3 days and we had some mental blunders,” Head Coach Victor Escamilla said after another multiple error game with 4 Lake miscues in this win. “When you play starters you can’t let down but it is harder for the kids who are sitting on the bench and are called into the game. We will still have to work on those things in practice. Making changes in a game is rough and you can do a better job in practice, but we still have holes to fill and we will need to rectify things and work on those things this Monday and Tuesday.”

The Hawk’s fielders had 14 errors during this 5 game stretch giving the coaches enough things to work on before hosting their tournament starting on this Thursday against SA Holmes at 2:45 pm and then finishing the day playing East Central starting at 7:00pm.

Canyon Lake will have double header on Thursday and one Friday game before being seeded for their final contest on Saturday.

                  Let’s Go Hawks!!

To start this game, The Lake was able to small ball a run with a one out single for Hunter Anderson who scored on a Griffen Williams single and Hawk lead, 1-0.

Chase Anderson started the next scoring opportunity in the 4th inning with a single and stolen base and scored on a James LaLonde single for a Hawk, 2-0 lead.

“I had an ‘e’ (error) at the beginning and I had to get that behind me and just try to put the ball in play and do the best you can,” Chase Anderson said. “The umpire screwed me up with a strike call that had me with an 0-2 count. I knew the pitcher would be coming with a curve ball and I used some baseball IQ during that hit sequence and you just have to know where you are at (in the count).”

Chase Anderson scored two runs in win over the Cowboys.

Meanwhile, Schultz gave up a one pitch single to start the game but a Dalton Stanley throw to 2nd base erased that runner trying to steal the base.

The Cowboys did not have a player make it to 2nd base until an error and then two straight hits, the last a triple, that plated two runs to tie the score, 2 all.

That tie did not last long when another small ball opportunity started with a Hunter Anderson walk and then a ground out and balk set CL up with another chance to take back the lead which came from a Griffen Williams sacrifice fly ball and Hawk lead, 3-2.

McCollum would tie the score again in the 6th frame on a double and one of the Hawk’s four errors.

Canyon Lake would get two more runs in the bottom half of that same inning with a Chase Anderson double and this time it was the Cowboys that could not rope a calf with two consecutive errors that would give CL a two run lead going into their final inning.

Schultz would close the door with some help from second baseman LaLonde who fielded a hit ball that looked to be a single and would have scored a run before a successful stab and throw to first base on his knees.

Chase finished, “After my second error, James (LaLonde) picked me up with that last out!!”

Second Baseman James LaLonde closed this win with a stellar play.

LaLonde gave his thoughts after finishing the game with a great play and how he also contributed with an rbi single, “My first at bat was a tough at bat (a checked swing to the pitcher)…but the second at bat wasn’t great but it (the hit) felt good and I will take it.”

That single was a two out hit that will look like a line drive on the box score.

On that last defensive play to close out this battle, LaLonde responded, “I thought the ball was going to be up the middle but I just went to it and picked it up and got the out by throwing the ball as hard as I could.”

That throw was an, ESPN top 10 play, after LaLonde went to the hole and made this play on his knees after stopping a ball that would have been a hit.

A game that had some mental errors but ended on a stellar defensive play and that gives Canyon Lake 9 wins and a chance to add more this coming week.

Congrats Hawks!!

           1  2  3  4  5  6  7   R  H  E
McCollum   0  0  0  0  2  1  0   3  4  2
CL Hawks   1  0  0  1  1  2  X   5  6  4

                      ab  r  h bi 2b bb so sb  misc
Tyler Pauly            4  0  0  0  0  0  1  1  roe
Hunter Anderson        3  2  1  0  0  1  0  0
Tanner Schultz         1  0  0  0  0  1  0  0  hbp
 pr Peyton McMullen    0  0  0  0  0  0  0  1
Griffen Williams       2  0  1  2  0  0  0  0  sf
Ty Sellers             3  0  0  0  0  0  1  0
Chase Anderson         3  2  2  0  1  0  0  1
Brayden Welch          2  0  1  0  0  0  0  0  sac
Jeremy Greene          1  0  0  0  0  0  1  0  sac
 ph Matthew McLain     1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0
James LaLonde          3  1  1  1  0  0  0  2  roe
totals                23  5  6  3  1  2  3  5

                       ip  h  r er bb so hb  W  L  S
Tanner Schultz (4-0)  7.0  4  3  0  0  8  1  1  0  0