Postseason placement TBD after road loss
Tagged by a pitch while leading off the top of the second inning, Sonny Flores then stole second base with a feet-first slide, advanced to a vacated third when William Mendoza-Lechuga grounded out to Olathe third baseman Adrian Luna and then scored via a wild pitch to Easton Smith.
The junior’s run Saturday morning, May 10, was about as old-school as it gets in baseball.
Unfortunately, it would be Ignacio’s only run.
Held to just one hit by Pirate senior right-hander Evan Eddy and forced to leave two runners on base after rally-killing catches in both the first and fourth frames by sophomore shortstop Jack Combs, the visiting Bobcats were summarily tamed at sunny Hubbard Field and concluded regular-season play losing 11-1 in a shortened five-inning game.
“We thought it was going to be easy; everyone was talking about it, but it turns out that’s now how it goes every time,” admitted Flores. “Definitely a lot of jacking around last night in the hotel, not enough paying attention or locking-in to what we came here to do, and it clearly showed on the field.”
And Flores was including himself in his postgame comment, knowing his muff of Eddy’s bases-loaded fly in the bottom of the second allowed Olathe’s Bryce Good to score – offsetting Flores’ run. OHS’ Westan England then bounced a grounder IHS third baseman Cole Wagner couldn’t collect, granting Bridger Vincent safe passage to the plate and increasing the home team’s lead to 6-1.
Bobcat junior righty Ambrose Valdez (L; 3 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 4 BB, 4 K) managed to leave the sacks packed by getting Braylon Lujan to pop up to first baseman Stoney White Thunder, and Combs to second baseman Joe Atencio, but the damage done became even more irreparable when Eddy (W, CG; 5 IP, H, R, BB, HB, 5 K) retired IHS’ 9-1-2 batters (Tanner Smith, Gabe Archuleta, Stoney White Thunder) consecutively in the top of the third.
OHS’ Luke Robertson then singled to start the home half, and after Luna struck out, advanced to third base via wild Valdez pitches to leadoff man Good. After Good drew a walk and promptly swiped second, Vincent popped up to White Thunder for the second out. But an errant offering to Jeyden Estrada – who’d ripped an infield single off the mound, perhaps grazing Valdez’s cleats as well, in his previous plate appearance – then allowed Robertson to score, putting Ignacio down 7-1 before Estrada grounded out to Wagner.
Valdez would work a one-out walk off Eddy in the guests’ fourth but, after receiving second base via an Eddy balk to Flores, would be stranded as Eddy froze Flores with a called third strike, then got Mendoza-Lechuga to line out to Combs.
“He’s tall, so he can get to that stuff,” said Good. “So, yeah, that was a great play to get us out of that inning.”
“Everyone’s a star in their own way but Jack really helped me quite a few times,” Eddy said. “The (scorekeepers) probably would have put, like, four extra runs on the board for Ignacio if it wasn’t for Jack.”
Eddy then walked against reliever Archuleta to begin the bottom of the fourth, and courtesy runner Hunter Lynch – who, along with Lujan, had scored in OHS’ four-run first via Combs’ two-out double to left – reached second via England’s sacrifice bunt placed in front of home plate, leaving new catcher Mendoza-Lechuga no choice but throw to White Thunder.
Lujan then walked and Combs was plunked, and Robertson then worked an RBI-walk scoring Lynch. Luna then grounded to Wagner, but the ball managed to dart beneath the big senior’s glove and into shallow left field – allowing Lujan and Combs to score and Robertson to hustle to third base. Good then grounded out to new shortstop Valdez, but Robertson scored easily and the ’Cats were – after Vincent flew out to centerfielder Flores – down to their last, fruitless at-bat.
“We took our loss yesterday and used what we did wrong today,” Eddy said, referencing the Pirates’ 1-0 loss to Meeker the previous afternoon. “Got the pressure put on us and we kind of crumbled yesterday, so we kind of … did the opposite and put pressure today onto the other team – make them crumble under their own mistakes. When you make one mistake it kind of causes a ripple effect, so we just kept adding pressure.”
Combs finished 1-2 with a run and two batted in, Robertson went 1-2 with two runs and one ribbie, and Good ended up 0-1 with three walks, two runs and one RBI. Vincent was 1-4 with two runs, Estrada went 1-3 and Eddy 1-2 with one RBI.
White Thunder went 1-2 with a first-inning single down the right-field line, Flores finished 0-1 with a run and Valdez 0-1 with a walk as the San Juan Basin League champion Bobcats dipped to 15-5 overall (8-1 SJBL). Finishing 5-5 in Western Slope League play, Olathe improved to 12-11 overall.
Both, however, would next have to wait until Wednesday, May 14, for their respective seedings in the 32-team 2025 CHSAA Class 2A State Tournament, and both squads departed knowing that neither can afford any more off-days.
“We’ve worked hard all year, and to go up here and not do our best. We just have to wake up the sticks and our defense a hundred percent,” White Thunder said. “That’s about it.”
“We really want to clean up our batting; we struggle a lot with strikeouts. But things like this really help us show ourselves that we can do it, you know?” Eddy said. “If we keep our confidence and we keep pressure on the other team – if it’s, like, a ten-run lead or even a one-run lead – we can take the victory.”