Bearcats advance despite obstacles  

The farther you go, the tougher it gets. That proved true for the Aledo Bearcats baseball team in their Class 5A Region I quarterfinal series with the Burleson Centennial Spartans.

Along with the talent of their opponent, the Bearcats (26-10) also had to battle weather and electrical problems to advance. Despite all of the obstacles, Aledo swept the Spartans (24-12) by scores of 4-0 and 3-0.

The Abilene Wylie Bulldogs (25-5) await the Bearcats in the regional semifinal round. Aledo will have an advantage in Game 1, as it will take place at Weatherford College with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 26. Game 2 will take place at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 27, at Abilene Christian University. If a third game is needed, it will start at 5 p.m. Saturday, May 28, at Iowa Park High School.

Aledo enters the series ranked 10th in the state in the latest Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association poll. The Bearcats have won nine straight games and the Bulldogs bring a 10-game win streak into the series.

“I know Abilene Wylie is a really good ball club,” head coach Chad Barry praised his upcoming opponent. “They had a really good last year, they’re good every year. I know Grant Martin does a phenomenal job coaching those guys and it’s going to present a major test for us.”

The series against Burleson Centennial could not have had a better start for the Bearcats. Ethan Jaques took the mound and went straight to work, pitching four innings of no-hit baseball.

Aledo got on the scoreboard in the second inning when four consecutive singles brought two runners across. Cade Pulido and Ryan Jones both got aboard with one out. David Jones drove in Pulido with a hard hit ball to right field, advancing Ryan Jones to third. Trace Mazon drove in Ryan Jones four pitches later, giving the Bearcats a 2-0 lead.

Pulido picked up an RBI of his own in the third inning as he doubled home Brady McAnear making it a three-run ballgame.

After Jaques polished off his fourth inning without surrendering a hit, the left field lights at Boswell High School went out and were unable to stay on. After an hour of waiting and deliberation, it was determined that the game would be delayed and finished the next day at Godley High School.

“We simply told them that we had the lead,” Barry remembered telling his team during the break. “We still had to get nine outs though. The only bad thing about it was that Centennial went all day knowing that they weren’t down to their last game. They were able to regroup and come back out and try to take game one.”

After a 23-hour delay, the game restarted and the fourth inning closed with the Bearcats going down in order. Adrian Guzman drove in Max Belyeu in the fifth to score Aledo’s fourth and final run of Game 1. Jaques took his no-hitter into the sixth inning until a triple with two outs broke it up, but the runner did not score.

The game ended quietly in the seventh with Jaques earning the complete game shutout.

“Ethan is one of those kids that can throw and never gets really sore,” Barry explained the decision to let Jaques finish the game. “He told me he was going to go home and take an epsom salt bath and I told him that I didn’t need him to try to be tough for me, and he promised. When I talked to him the next morning he said ‘Give me the ball. I’m going to finish this game.’ We had guys ready to go just in case but he pitched a gem.”

The wind in Godley had already been howling, but in the 30 minutes in between the conclusion of Game 1 and the start of Game 2, the wind shifted and storms started forming on the horizon. This created difficult conditions for batters on both sides.

Hunter Rudel got the start at pitcher in the second game and pitched into the seventh inning in a low scoring pitchers’ duel.

The third inning was the only inning that saw any scoring. After Mazon reached on an error, Jaques, Belyeu and Estevan Flores all recorded hits in consecutive at-bats. The Bearcats scored three times in the inning and it proved to be enough.

Centennial kept hitting, though, and after more than 100 pitches Rudel was pulled after giving up a leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh. Preston Clark came in to close out the game and got the first out on a ground ball.

However, a hit-by-pitch put another runner and brought the tying run to the plate. After getting the second out, the Spartans hit a deep fly ball to Mazon in right field that almost cleared the fence to tie the game, but Mazon was able to drift back to make the series-clinching out.