McGREGOR—Tiger baseball displayed offensive dominance on Friday night after batting in nine runs in the second that helped lead them to a 20-0 run-rule victory after five innings.
The win comes after opening district play earlier that week with a 10-2 defeat of visiting Lexington.
“We’re playing really good baseball right now,” Tiger head coach Austin Caffey said. “Last weekend, it was tough for us. We went to We s t , played some really good baseball teams and didn’t come away with the victories, but it made us better in a lot of aspects and I think that car r ied over to this week.”
“We’re doing the fundamentals right and having a good approach at the plate,” he added. “Going back to week one, I said our mantra was making team plays, having quality at-bats and throwing strikes, and we’ve been doing that in our first two games.”
GAME— The Blue-and-Gold got things going early as they scored six in the first inning. They added nine more in the second with RBI by Mario Casarez, Stephen Goodrich, Tyler Stewart, Brody Willard and Mason Willard. RHS added another five in the fifth. Due to the district’s 10-run rule, which means the game is over if a team is leading by 10 runs after the fifth inning, Tiger players and fans were able to head back to Rockdale early as the team was up 20-0 when the inning was over.
Mason Lillard led the team at the plate, having three hits in four at-bats. Blaydn Barcak, Goodrich, Casarez and both Willard brothers each had two hits during the evening.
In addition to performing well on offense, the Tiger defense didn’t commit a single error and junior hurler Mason Willard allowed just one hit, striking out nine batters and walking only one.
THIS WEEK— After facing two opponents that have yet to get a district win this past week, Rockdale has a tough stretch coming up. On Tuesday after press time they faced Lorena, who is among the top 20 teams in Class 3A according to a Texas High School Baseball Coaches poll conducted earlier this month and face Troy, a perennial power, this Friday at Tiger Field.
The Trojans are coming off of a 10-2 win in Lexington this past Friday and opened up district play earlier last week with eighthranked Academy, whom they lost to 12-7 after the Bumblebees got off to a hot start in the first two innings.
Although it’s his first season coaching the Tigers, Caffey is very aware of how challenging his team’s district slate will be.
“It’s a gauntlet stretch we have right now,” he said. “This is the toughest district in 3A and we have Lorena, Troy and Rogers coming up. Those are three really tough teams and all we can do is control what we can control. This district has four top 25 teams, it tests you and makes you a better baseball team.”
First pitch between the Tigers and the visiting Trojans is scheduled for 7 p.m.
LADY TIGERS— Earlier in the evening, Lady Tiger softball fell 16-1 to McGregor.
RHS got ahead early after a Lady Dog shortstop error led to senior Grace Avrin bringing in sophomore Izabella Delgadillo for the game’s first run, giving the Blue-and-Gold a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.
However, McGregor took over when it was their turn to bat. MHS scored seven in the first and another eight in the second before winning the game after three innings.
The Lady Tigers are 0-4 in district play and, like their male counterparts, faced Lorena on Tuesday after the deadline of this week’s Reporter and host Troy on Friday.
Game time is slated for 7 p.m.
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