Published: May 12, 2008 08:11 pm            

Cards, Dogs to meet in Nederland

BRIDGE CITY — The series everyone in Bridge City and Jasper has been waiting for all baseball season long will actually come down to one game.

The Bulldogs won a coin flip and took a one-game, winner take all format with the Cardinals.

The game will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Nederland, a site chosen by Bridge City Coach Billy Bryant.

The hype for this season’s match-up of the Cardinals and Bulldogs started just a few moments after Jasper’s win in Game 3 against Bridge City a year ago in the regional finals.

Bridge City won the two district games this season, 4-3 and 7-6, on its way to a 13-1 mark in 21-3A and a district title.

While Matt Hicks got both wins on the mound, timely hitting also came into play for the Cardinals.

Blake Hubbard had the game-winning hit in the bottom of the seventh in the first game and Blake Snyder had the go-ahead homer in the top of the fifth in the second victory.

Bryant now expects the same kind of games on Friday with more at stake.

“Our district race was tough and both games with Jasper had playoff atmospheres,” Bryant said. “There will be a lot more people at these games and it will come down to which team plays the best that particular day. The main thing those two wins did was give our kids confidence. We have six first-year starters so for them to succeed in those games will help them play better in the playoffs against those guys.”

Jasper got out of the bi-district round with a 13-3 win over Tarkington and then took down Bellville in two games, 7-5 and 13-2.

“In a series like this it always starts with hoping your pitching has a good night,” Bryant added. “Jasper already gets three outs so we can’t make errors and give them say five outs. We will also need more timely hitting.”

The Cardinals are coming off a three-game series win against the Needville Blue Jays.

Bridge City lost Game 1, 2-1, only to win Games 2 and 3, 8-1 and 9-3.

The Cardinals got 36 strike outs from pitchers Matt Hicks, Jason Clark and Jaden Dillon who all threw complete games.

Sophomore Joe Robertson knows the Cardinals will need more solid pitching on Friday to beat the Bulldogs.

“Everyone is pretty excited to be playing those guys again,” Robertson said. “It really doesn’t matter to us if it is one game or three games. It should be a great pitcher’s dual and we just got to get some hits and runs behind our pitcher. I think we can do it.”

Bryant also seems some positives in playing just one game instead of needing two wins to advance.

“I prefer two out of three but the rules are if you disagree you go to a coin flip,” Bryant added. “Now we are going to take what we have and make it into a positive. The positive is if you win one game you move on and don’t have to worry about winning another one.”

The Needville series also proved to Bryant his team is willing to do anything to win when their backs are to the wall.

“Needville showed there was a desire to keep finding ways to win,” Bryant said. “Some people think winning is easy but it always isn’t that way. The way we have to score runs at some points is not always pretty. We have to continue to get pitching performances like we did this past weekend to make things a lot easier. That series was one of the best pitching performances I have ever seen in a three-game series.”

The winner of the Bridge City/Jasper series will take on either Carthage or Hutto next week in the regional semi-finals.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.