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Sports
PHOTO BY JEFF BERGER

Lanham Groff prepares
to slide home past Poteet catcher Anthony Huron as part of a
first-inning Hondo uprising in the bi-district game with Poteet. Twice,
the Owls held a three-run lead, but both slipped away in a 12-10
bi-district loss.

Joseph Ortega records
a forceout at second in the first inning of the Owls’ game with
Poteet.
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Owls on short end of bi-district match up
with Poteet
By Jeff Berger
Anvil Herald Sports Editor
San Antonio -- Too many walks and
too many errors continued to plague the Hondo Owls on Friday, May 2,
just as they have for much of the 2008 baseball season.
This time, however, it meant an end to the season, and that it was time
to pack up the equipment.
The Owls lost to Poteet, 12-10, in a
single-game 3A bi-district playoff at Southwest High School. Poteet,
with the win, will go on to face Bandera, which had a first-round bye,
in the area round of the playoffs. The Aggies and Bulldogs will clash in
a best-of-three series Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon, May 8
and 10, also at Southwest.
Hondo concludes the year with its ninth
straight trip to the playoffs and a season record of 8-15.
The Owls twice had leads of three runs, 3-0 and
6-3, but couldn’t make either stand up, with the most damaging inning
coming in Poteet’s half of the fifth, when the Aggies scored seven
runs to take a 10-6 lead.
Early on, it looked as though the Owls would
dominate. After retiring Poteet in the first inning with two runners
stranded, Hondo jumped on the Aggies in the bottom half of the inning.
Two singles, a liner to right and a bunt by
Jordan Schneider and Lanham Groff, followed by Cody Tondre’s getting
hit by a pitch, loaded the bases for the Owls. Bailey Ross laced a
two-run single to right, and Travis Hay singled to right, also driving
in a run. Joseph Ortega walked to load the bases, with Hondo already
leading 3-0 and with no one out. But the next three batters were all
struck out by Jaime Leal, and Poteet escaped with no further damage.
But Poteet came right back to tie the game with
only one hit. Three walks, a hit batter and an error helped make the
score 3-3.
Hondo reclaimed a three-run lead in the bottom
of the second, but two questionable calls at first base kept the score
from growing even more. With one away, Groff walked. He appeared to dive
safely back into first base on a pickoff attempt, but was called out.
With two gone, Tondre and Hay walked, with a single by Ross in between.
Ortega singled to left, driving in courtesy runners Kevin McGill and Lee
Ray Quintanilla. After Noah Ozgo was hit by a pitch, Hay scored on a
wild pitch, making it 6-3, and putting two runners in scoring position.
Zach Bohmfalk appeared to have beaten out a ground ball to shortstop for
a base hit, but he was also ruled out. That took a second run off the
board in the inning, and chalked up a second questionable out, but the
Owls still held a 6-3 lead, which stood through the end of the fourth
inning.
The wheels came off for Hondo in the fifth
inning. Owl pitchers Ross and Ozgo were roughed up for six hits. Two
walks and a third strike in the dirt produced three more runners, and
two errors compounded the problems in a seven-run Poteet inning, giving
the Aggies a 10-6 lead.
Hondo loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth, and Groff appeared to
have drawn ball four on a pitch high and outside. The pitch was called a
strike, prolonging the at-bat, instead of driving in a run. On the next
pitch, Groff lined out to center field to end the inning.
Poteet added to its lead in the top of the
sixth. Hondo erased the lead runner with a 6-4-3 double play, but
back-to-back walks, followed by a two-run double for John Perez, gave
the Aggies a 12-6 advantage.
Hondo got back four runs in the bottom of the
sixth. Tondre ripped a double to the left field corner, and Ross walked.
Both courtesy runners, McGill and pinch runner Colby Freehauf scored
when Travis Hay tripled to deep right. After a walk to Ozgo, Allen Lopez
lined a two-out double to the left field corner, driving in two more
runs.
After Poteet was held scoreless in the top of the seventh, the Owls went
down in order in the bottom half of the inning, the only time in the
game’s 14 half-innings in which a team failed to get a runners on
base.
Lopez, Ross and Hay all had multi-hit games for
the Owls. For Poteet, David Benavidez, Moses Rodriguez, Anthony Huron
and Perez all had more than one-hit, among the dozen recorded by the
Aggies. |
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