Mountain Valley Hawks Come Up Short in Loss to Spring Branch, 5-3
Mountain Valley Baseball in class after 2 run loss to Spring Branch, 5-3.
Mountain Valley Hawks ran out of innings in loss to Spring Branch MS when the game ended down, 5-3.
Keep it up MV Hawks and Finish strong & Don’t forget to vote in May for runoff.
MVMS was coming off a convincing win (9-1) over Churchill but ran into a more capable team who scored a run in 5 of their 6 frames.
Hayes Holladay for MV took the loss with some control problems to start the game but settled in as the game matured.
“We have a lot of scrappy players and they are guys that can play baseball,” Head Coach Raymond Amaro stated. “That is what makes it fun because we can compete with anyone. We proved we could play with them but we had a mistake here or there…but that’s baseball.”
On how this team continues with another game on Saturday against another stalwart opponent, “We will keep learning from our mistakes and the key will be learning a little bit each game so we can be better by the end of this season.”
Baseball IQ was apparent during this contest by taking care of SB base runners during the innings by outsmarting 3 Wranglers which kept this game within reach of coming out on top.
Let’s Go Mountain Valley Hawk!!
During the 4th inning, Mountain Valley was able to erase two baserunners using that IQ variant in grand fashion.
That first instance involved a Wrangler player with some weird antics on 2nd base, while Holladay was in his windup. Those gyrations did not have to go on long before Holladay turned for 2nd to keep the runner close but, The Antic Wrangler, was caught too far off.
Instead of throwing to 3rd or 2nd base, Holladay started running straight to that Antic character who was caught off guard and taking just one throw for a tag out. That sent him walking….’in a straight no gyration line’ back to his dugout.
Later during that same inning, Spring Branch tried to steal home base when the Wrangler on 1st base was wondering off base to draw attention for a run down that would allow 3rd base runner a chance for a score.
Way to Go MV Hawks!!
Once again it was Holladay taking things in grand fashion of running to that player attempting to steal 2nd while waiting for that right moment for a throw to the plate. Perfection was the result with an out which kept Wrangler team from scoring.
Two outs that did not have a pitch to the plate was impressive.
“We do that in practice and I have been playing with a lot of years of experience and the more you play the more you understand,” Holladay said like an ole sage. “That player on 2nd base will learn not to play around with a pitcher… he can expect to be picked off….those are easy outs.”
Hayes Holladay was all business in game with Spring Branch.
The Hawks were led offensively with two hits off the bat of Gram Simpson and Cullen Barnhart. A sacrifice fly by Carson Gibbons scored Holladay who drew an opening game walk that tied the score, 1-1.
Mountain Valley needed one or two key hits to pull this game back into their favor after leaving two on base in the 3rd and 5th inning and then there was a Wrangler double play that ended the 4th frame.
The Hawks were able to string 3 straight singles to open the final inning but a strikeout with the bases loaded would spell the end to this battle due to a time limit.
If those little things, Coach Amaro spoke of, can be fine tuned then a chance to upend Smithson Valley Middle School might be a good measuring stick.
“Spring Branch won our district last year and Smithson Valley are two tough teams and hanging with Spring Branch with a chance to win was good,” Coach Amaro closed.
That Smithson Valley game will be this Saturday at the Hawk Nest with that first pitch at 10am.
Go MV Hawks!!
1 2 3 4 5 6 R H E Spring Branch MS 1 1 0 1 1 1 5 5 1 Mountain Valley MS 1 0 0 0 0 2 3 7 3 ab r h bi bb so misc Hayes Holladay 2 1 0 0 1 0 Lucas Schexnayder 2 0 1 0 1 0 Gram Simpson 2 1 2 0 0 0 Carson Gibbons 2 1 1 1 0 0 sf Wyatt Sims 3 0 1 1 0 0 Cullen Barnhart 3 0 2 0 0 1 Greyson Patton 2 0 0 0 0 2 ph Jordan Scheppler 1 0 0 0 0 0 Eli Hammons 2 0 0 0 0 1 sb hbp roe Gavyn Baldera 2 0 0 1 1 0 Cooper Holland 1 0 0 0 0 1 ph Brayden Moody 1 0 0 0 1 1 Totals 23 3 7 3 4 6 Pitching ip h r er bb so W L Hayes Holladay (1-1) 5.0 5 4 1 4 3 0 1 Carson Gibbons 1.0 0 1 1 2 2 0 0 Totals 6.0 5 5 2 6 5 0 1 Balk: Carson Gibbons Hit Batters: Hayes Holladay 2 Carson Gibbons 1 Pitches-Strikes: Hayes Holladay 81-45 56% Carson Gibbons 24-9 38%
