Mustangs ousted from playoffs

YOAKUM — “Playoff baseball” isn’t a phrase that’s usually uttered alongside Nixon-Smiley. But the Mustangs, who were one win away from a contested district title, were able to play some bonus baseball from May 6-7 when they traveled to Yoakum to take on the Industrial Cobras in a three-game series. The young Mustangs came away with two losses, dropping out of the tournament in the bi-district round losing 11-2 on Friday and 13-2 on Saturday to the Cobras.

The bats came alive for both teams with only five batters striking out in the second game, though 11 struck out in the first game. The difference was, Industrial was able to get timely hits.

Industrial 11, Nixon-Smiley 2

The mistakes made in game one of the series proved to be big ones as the Cobras scored four runs in the fifth and three in the seventh to take down Nixon-Smiley 11-2 in the contest.

With the game tied at 2-2, the Mustangs were able to load the bases with one out on the board. Dylan Maldonado came up to bat hit the ball towards the Cobras’ defensive depth and Industrial was able to end the ending on a double play.

“We had runners on all night,” Nixon-Smiley head coach Bobby Newman noted. “We hit four hard-hit balls up the middle, [Industrial are] in double-lay depth, they’re doing their jobs defensively, we hit it right to them. It happens. I was happy with the way we put the ball in play tonight, we hit the ball hard, we just hit it right at them.”

Industrial then answered by putting two on base before an error later led to runs being scored. With a man on first and second, Industrial’s Wesley Sliva hit the ball up toward second base for a ground-ball, double play. However, the Mustangs opted to throw to third instead second that may have led to an inning-ending double play.

“We’re playing corners in and we have double-play depth up the middle,” Newman explained, “we get the double play ball and we try to go to third with it. If we go to second that’s two outs. The next guy flies out, it’s still a 2-2 ball game. Then they hit the ball, we don’t see it off the bat in left field, another routine fly ball that drops because we didn’t see it.”

The two errors led to four runs being scored, giving the Cobras a 6-2 lead.

After a three up, three down in the sixth, the Mustangs gave up five more runs in the seventh, making a come back insurmountable.

“We just kind of got down a little bit, got to work through it,” Newman said.

“They’re a good ball club, we knew that coming in,” he continued, “but I feel like we’re a good club too. We talked about today only giving them 21 outs and that was it. This time of year you can’t give teams extra outs. Got to make plays when they present themselves.”

At the plate, Jason Yell led with two hits going 2-for-3 with a run. Devin Hester was 1-for-4 with a run. Jordan Van Auken pitched six innings, giving up 10 runs, six were earned, walking four and striking out seven batters. Ricky Flores finished the night giving up a run and a walk.

Nixon-Smiley 3, Industrial 13

The Mustangs began the game sending seven batters to the plate in the first but only scoring two. At the bottom of the inning, Industrial answered with five runs, taking a lead the Mustangs couldn’t overcome as they lost 13-3 after six innings of play.

“We started off well,” Newman said. “We scored two and then, I don’t know, the zone was a little tight and we couldn’t find that zone so we give up five in the first. We came back and still competed, but that’s a good ball club over there, that shortstop [Dylan Kruppa] is a great player.”

Nixon-Smiley started Rodrigo Acevedo on the mound but had to pull him in the first after allowing the first six batters to get on base, giving up two walks, two hits, one hit by pitcher and one batter on by error. Ricky Flores would finish out the game for the Mustangs.

As Industrial continued to accumulate base runners and find a way to get them home, Nixon-Smiley just couldn’t get those timely hits as they left eight batters on base.

By the end of the fifth, the numbers showed how efficient the Cobras were over the Mustangs.

“We were down 9-3 but we set the same amount of batters to the plate as they have,” Newman explained, “it’s just we couldn’t get a hit when we needed a hit. We left some runs on the board in that first inning, but the kids did well, they competed well.”

With Industrial as the home team, they added four runs in the bottom of the sixth to 10-run rule the Mustangs, ending the game at 13-3.

Colby Newman scored two runs as he went 1-for-1 at the plate, walking twice on balls and once by a hit pitch. Jordan Van Auken scored another run as he went 0-for-2, reaching base on an error and a walk. Acevedo went 2-for-3 with singles.

Although the Mustangs end the season without a playoff win, the team will be returning all but two seniors.

“I think this year we learned that as long as we still had outs to play with, anything can happen,” Newman said. “The kids competed, they learned how to compete [when down]. I think we’ll be better equipped to handle this experience next year if we’re fortunate enough to get in. I’m proud of them”

As for the seniors, Newman is going to miss the experience they brought to the field as well as their leadership. But as it goes with every program someone will have to step up and fill their spot. Fortunately, the team is fairly young as they started four juniors, four sophomores and one senior.