By Caleb Adams

Leader Correspondent

ORANGEFIELD— The West Orange-Stark Mustangs toppled the Orangefield Bobcats 7-3 as District 22-4A play comes close to the end for the season.

The Mustangs (20-3, 9-0) will head to Silsbee (22-3, 8-1) Tuesday night and a WO-S win would seal the outright 22-4A title while a loss would mean a co-championship.

Silsbee defeated LC-M 12-0 Friday night.

The Mustangs received another big outing from junior Chad Dallas. Dallas, who tossed a no-hitter at LC-M in his latest start, pitched well again Friday. He allowed just six Bobcat hits while striking out nine and walking two.

For Orangefield (14-7, 4-5), which has already clinched a playoff berth as well, the following pitchers were used. Mason Gonzalez started and went five innings, four runs allowed, three hits and four walks with five strikeouts on the night. Johnny Armstrong lasted three batters and didn’t record an out. Armstrong gave up three runs on two hits, two walks and no strikeouts.

The whole lineup for the Mustangs produced hits and helped move the runners around. With good base running and hitting to go with it, the Mustangs scored in bunches early.

The Mustangs started the game off fast with early production from the lineup. KJ Miller started the spree with a double to left field. Jack Dallas knocked him in with an RBI single up the middle scoring the first run of the game. Ryan Ragsdale knocked in Jack Dallas with a long triple to the right center field fence. Chad Dallas knocked Ragsdale in with a long double to right field for the third run of the inning. Pinch runner for Chad Dallas, Justin Veitch, scored on a pass ball for the fourth run of the inning. The Mustangs would end the first inning with a 4-0 advantage.

Orangefield was able to score a run in return in the first inning. Brett Fregia got on with a single, Mason Gonzalez struck out, but on the third strike the catcher lost the ball and Gonzalez beat out a tough throw which allowed Fregia to score as he was running on the play to trim the margin to 4-1.

The Mustangs found more runs in the top of the sixth inning. Chad Dallas and Tre Bernard walked to start the inning. Teron Brown knocked in Veitch, the pinch runner for Dallas. Kaleb Ramsey hit a hard single to drive in both Bernard and Brown to make the score 7-1.

The Bobcats found more offense in the sixth inning. Mason Gonzalez got on base with a walk, and stole second base. Kent Micheal also got on base with a walk while Gonzalez took third base on a bad pitch. Andrew Hoyland knocked in Gonzalez with a hard single to right field. DH Blake Bradley hit a hard single up the middle to score the pinch runner for Micheal, Brenton Standley, from second base. The Bobcats inched closer but werestill down 7-3 heading into the final inning of play.

The Bobcats will host Bridge City (13-10, 4-5) Tuesday night. The winner will get the third-place playoff seed out of 22-4A while the loser will get the fourth-place playoff berth.