Robert Cessna
MUMFORD - One of the best seasons in Anderson-Shiro baseball history had a quiet ending. The Owls couldn't score in Thursday's game against Thrall, and things got worse as they had trouble hitting Friday night as the Tigers rolled to a 10-2 victory to complete the sweep of their Class 3A Division II best-of-three regional playoff series at the Pete J. Bienski Jr. Sports Complex.
Region III champ Thrall (29-5-1) advances to play Region IV winner Orange Grove (22-10-1) in the state semifinals. Anderson-Shiro (22-14) could never get its bats going against Thrall. The Owls had scored in 22 straight games, including all eight playoff games until a 3-0 loss Thursday against Thrall senior right-hander Maverick McAllister who threw a complete game. Positives for Anderson-Shiro were it outhit Thrall 5-4 and the Owls had won three previous elimination games in postseason.
Friday's game was all Thrall thanks to the bat of senior Hayden Heselmeyer and the arm of junior Bryce Brinkmeyer. Heselmeyer started rallies with hits in the first, third and fifth innings with him scoring each time as Thrall built a 3-0 lead.
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That was more than enough for Brinkmeyer who no-hit Anderson-Shiro for six innings. The right-hander struck out four and walked five.
"He competed," Anderson-Shiro head coach Robert Jackson said. "He was around the zone. And the balls we put in play; they made the plays. You have to tip your hat to them."
Anderson-Shiro's Logan Jackson lined a shot into the right-field corner for a double to lead off the seventh inning, ending Brinkmeyer's no-hit bid on his 100th pitch. That was about the only suspense left as Thrall had a 10-0 lead after scoring five runs in the sixth inning and two more in the seventh.
Brinkmeyer was pulled after walking the next batter. The Thrall fans showed their appreciation for Brinkmeyer's one-hitter that few saw coming.
"Bryce really struggled in his last two starts and he had to leave those games early," Thrall coach Justin Adams said. "But he's been our second starter all year, so we just had a lot of confidence in him. He's a competitor, and we got a great rebound start out of him."
Brinkmeyer retired the first seven batters via five groundouts and two strikeouts. He had a lot of walks, but never more than one in an inning.
"We play really good defense," Adams said. "And when guys put the ball in play when Bryce is up there [on the mound], we tend to get a lot of weak ground-ball outs, and a lot of fly-ball outs. And he did a great job with that tonight."
Thrall didn't have an error in the series until the final inning.
Part of the problem for Anderson-Shiro's offense was the turf field allows for true bounces, but the Owls weren't making good contact, at least not against Brinkmeyer.
"Last night we hit a lot of line drives, and they made plays," Jackson said. "I thought we put the barrel on ball better last night than tonight. I don't know if that guy's ball had a little run or cut to it or if he was just nibbling at the corners, but he gave us fits."
That was also true for Haselmeyer. He opened the game with a double and scored on a single by sophomore Gus Navejas. Haselmeyer had a one-out single in the third as Anderson-Shiro senior right fielder Sage Price just missed a diving catch. Haselmeyer stole second and he easily stole third when the Owls didn't pay attention to him. The Owls compounded the problem trying to throw out Haselmeyer at third, though he was almost at the bag by the time got to the plate. The errant attempt scored Haselmeyer who two innings later led off the fifth inning with a single and moved around on singles by Navejas and sophomore Weston Smiley.
Anderson-Shiro starting pitcher Kyle Buenger left after allowing a leadoff infield single in the sixth. The senior right-hander allowed eight hits, striking out five and hit two batters. He allowed four runs, but only three were earned. He gave Anderson-Shiro a chance to win.
"He's a four-year varsity guy," Jackson said. "He's always been very efficient throwing strikes and let the defense make plays. And if we make the plays he has a lot of success."
Thrall blew the game open against Anderson-Shiro's bullpen, stringing together five straight two-out hits in the sixth with a double by McAllister scoring two and a single by senior Nick Treuter also scoring two. McAllister added a two-run single in the seventh. Runs were also hard to come by until Thrall broke the game open in the sixth because of an 11-mph south/southeast wind blowing in from left field to right field.
The Anderson-Shiro fans who struck around were were rewarded with five straight Owls to reach to open the seventh inning. The enthusiastic Owl fans and their counterparts from Thrall formed a packed house at the place nicknamed "The Cotton Palace," which had an electric atmosphere from start to finish. The blue-clad Owl fans got to cheer in the seventh as Price had an RBI single and junior Davin Bialas added a bases-loaded walk. But Thrall sophomore reliever Jack Gustafson ended any chance for a miracle comeback by retiring three straight batters.
That rally along with Jackson's postgame speech allowed the Owls to leave feeling somewhat better.
"I just told them, I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but that's the second longest playoff run in school history," Jackson said. "So, it's something to be proud of, something we can look forward to trying to repeat again next year, and in the year after."
Anderson-Shiro's 14-player roster had six seniors. Senior shortstop Connor Daley and senior second baseman Evan Borski batted first and second, joining Buenger and Price in the starting lineup. Borski walked twice as did Buenger.
"We got a lot to replace, especially on the mound," Jackson said. "Position-wise, we got a lot of guys returning. So we'll need some JV guys to step up, and some other guys, just to take some innings on the mound too."
The regional final matched teams looking for their second trip to the state tournament. Both won Class A state titles in their only appearance. Thrall won in 1998, beating Corsicana Mildred and Collinsville at Austin's Burger Field. Anderson-Shiro won in 2006, beating Thorndale and Union Hill at Round Rock's Dell Diamond.
Anderson-Shiro and Thrall could meet again come next year. Thrall, which just moved up a classification this year, starts four sophomores and a junior. The school had its greatest success this school year in baseball. The football and softball teams both finished fourth in district and lost in the first round of the playoffs. Both basketball teams finished sixth in seven-team districts and had losing records.
Adams said his team has been very efficient.
"It's all these kids, man, I don't take credit for that," he said.
Thrall had 15 hits with Smiley and Navejas also having three each to match Heselmeyer who was 3-for-4 with a walk and four runs scored. He also had an RBI single in Thursday's game to give Thrall a 1-0 lead. McAllister and Treuter each had two hits.
Orange Grove swept Hebbronville 7-0 and 10-0.
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