By Caleb Adams

Leader Correspondent

 

LITTLE CYPRESS — The Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears took care of the Diboll Lumberjacks 9-2 in Game Two at Don Gibbens Field Friday night in the Class 4A Region III bidistrict round of the playoffs to snag the series, picking up their 30^th win of the season in the process.

The Bears (30-5) blasted the Lumberjacks 11-1 in five innings at Diboll High School Wednesday night.

The Bears will move on to face District 23-3A champion Huffman in the Area Round next week.

LC-M scored in bunches Friday night, scoring three runs in three separate innings, making sure the Lumberjacks didn’t have an opening to strike back easily.

Truman Franklin and Michael Lee combine for five of the nine earned runs batted in for the Bears, both a core part of the offense in the three-four holes of the lineup.

Lee has been on a tear of late as he had five RBI in Game One and four more Friday.

LC-M would take advantage of walks and errors by the Lumberjacks on a few of their runs, but for the most part singles and doubles produced the Bears RBIs all night long.

The Bears were the first on the board with a long double from pitcher Anthony Bandiero, down the right field line, to bring in John Beeson from third base, who reached on a walk to lead off the inning. Chris Bilbo continued a two-out rally with a hard single to left to drive in two more runs, Truman Franklin and Bandiero, to take a three-run lead after one inning of action.

The Lumberjacks came back with offense of their own in the top of the second. Hunter Smith, Matthew Perez and Alex Luna loaded the bases with two singles and a walk. Austen Hernendez knocked in Smith from third with a blooper to right, and reloaded the bases for the Lumberjacks. That’s all that Diboll would grab from the bases loaded situation as the Bears still led 3-1 in the bottom of the second.

Lee, with a single, drove in two more runs, Slade Green and Max Dileo, in a bases loaded situation. The next pitch Reid Saperstein stole home on a pickoff attempt to first, making it 6-1 heading into the third inning.

Lee brought in another run with a sacrifice fly to deep right to bring in Dileo from third base, to extend the lead even further. Franklin drove in two more with a blooper to right field making it 9-1 in the bottom of the fourth for the Bears.

The Lumberjacks scored another run in the top of the seventh with a hard single from Lucio Monrroy, driving in Adam Flores. That would be all they could get as the Bears zipped to an easy win.

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