Rain clouds may make another appearance in Brazos County for the Thorn-dale Bulldog baseball team on Thursday.
Last week, Thorndale swept the Brazos Cougars 9-0 and 2-1 in bi-district round of the playoffs underneath the threat of rain at Bryan High School.
With an 80 percent chance of rain during the 2A Region II area game at at Nutrabolt Stadium at 7 p.m., this week’s teams will be fighting like dogs and cats to finish the game before it’s postphoned.
Both teams sport a 10-1 district records. Thorndale, District 27-2A champs, is now 22-6 overall, while Burton, the District 26-2A winner, is 22-4-1.
The young Panther team is coming off a 11-0 victory over West Hardin in bi-district.
“I know they’re a good ball club and with a very good group of young kids. They hit the ball well, play good defense are are very well-coached,” said Thorn-dale Baseball Coach Kelly Kuhl. “They beat an Iola team in district play that has been consistently good. It should be a great series.”
Game two of the series is set for Friday at 5 p.m. in Bryan and if a game three is needed it will folow 30 minutes after the end of game two.
REGIONAL – If the Bulldogs get past Burton, there’s a good chance they will play the 2018 2A state champions Big Sandy for the third straight year in the postseason.
In 2017, Thorndale lost to the Wildcats in the regional finals and lost to them again last year in the regional semi-finals.
Big Sandy is going into their area matchup on Friday in Madisonville against Shiner as the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association’s top ranked team in their classification and a record of 29-3. Shiner is 17-5 and were second in their district. low game two.
BI-DISTRICT GAME TWO – Pitcher Logan Davis shutout Brazos 9-0 last Wednesday at Bryan High School in the bi-district round of playoffs.
The Bulldogs scored early
“With the bad weather coming in you never know what’s going to happen,” said Kuhl. “We didn’t want the series to be tied and have to worry about when we can play so I told them ‘let’s shut them down in the first and go jump on them’ and we did that.”
The Bulldogs took the game in the fourth with a five-run rally started by a Scott Guzman hit to leftfield. Guzman then stole second base before making it to third on a Ty Kovar ground out.
Mason Kuhl’s single brought Guzman home to put the ‘Dawgs up 3-0. The Cougars walked Taylor before Kuhl stole home on a wild pitch to make the game 4-0.
After Corey Preusse was walked, Davis brought him and Taylor in when the Cougar leftfielder dropped a pop fly to put Thorndale up 6-0. Davis scored when Paxton hit a pop fly that was dropped by a Brazos fielder, putting Thorndale up 7-0.
Thorndale added two more runs in the sixth on a wild pitch and a Colton Ray RBI-single. The Bulldogs won the game 9-0 to advance to the regional quarterfinals.
“We were able to put three or four together and had a couple of walks and just found a hole,” Kuhl said.
Thorndale had 12 steals: Taylor had five, Guzman three, Kuhl two and Preusse and Mason Lindig one.
Davis finished with nine strikeouts and allowed five hits.
GAME ONE- The Bulldogs opened the series with a 2-1 win. Taylor and Paxton combined for a no hitter.
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