By Caleb Adams

Leader Correspondent

 

POLLOK— The Pollok Central Bulldogs downed the Orangefield Bobcats 5-2 at Rayburn Richardson Field Thursday night in Game One of their best two-out-of-three Class 3A Region III regional quarterfinal series.

Pollok Central’s offense carried the game for the Bulldogs (20-13) and was the demise of the Bobcats (20-11) early in Game One.

Game Two of the series shifts back to Orangefield High School Saturday at 3 p.m. with Game Three to follow if necessary.

The Bulldogs finished with nine hits while the Bobcats had four in Game One.

In the opening salvo the Bulldogs sent all nine batters to the plate with five hits, four RBI’s, a triple and four singles and a whopping 33 pitches from the Bobcats.

The Bobcats couldn’t keep up with the Bulldogs early onslaught. With just two hits and held scoreless till the sixth, Orangefield was kept quiet by starter Bulldog starter Dylan Cloonan. Finally in the sixth the Bobcats would find their swings with a couple bunts and bloop singles to keep their hope alive.

Ultimately Cloonan would pitch a full game for the win with two runs scored, allowing four hits, no walks and six strikeouts. His pitching combined with the early hitting by the offense was just what was needed to take the victory.

What the Bobcats did well after the first inning was stop the bleeding before it got out of control. The Bulldogs scored just one run outside of the first inning spark thanks to some crafty pitching and fielding from the Bobcat defense. Leaving runners on base was a specialty for the Bulldogs late and it would leave the door open just slightly for the Bobcats.

The Bulldogs struck first with three early hits in the first inning off Bobcat starter Blake Bradley. Dylan Cloonan and Logun Hobbs would hit back to back singles to lead off the inning. Cade Graves sent one to shallow right and Cloonan scored from second base for the game’s first run. Aaron Sprinkle followed up with a big triple to bring in both Hobbs and Graves from second and first base.

The rally continued with a single from Bryce Case to bring in Sprinkle from third base. That would be all for the inning, but the Bobcats were in an early hole, down 4-0 after the first inning.

The Bulldogs punched in another run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Jacob Davis started with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Graves would walk to bring up Sprinkle who bunted, but after a wild throw on the play Davis was able to score. The Bulldogs leaft two on base but took a 5-0 lead heading into the fifth inning.

Orangefield found gold after a bunt attempt went in their favor in the top of the sixth. Kaiden Dubose led off with a single for the Bobcats to bring up Johnny Armstrong. Armstrong would lay down a bunt towards third, after a bad throw Dubose was able to score all the way from first base for the Bobcats’ first run of game one.

Kadeon Evans kept the rally going with a grounder to short, Armstrong would just beat the throw home to score on the play. That’s all they would find, but there was life in the Bobcats in the sixth, down 5-2 heading to the bottom of the sixth.

The Bobcats fell after a couple late game runs weren’t enough in this one.