Post by Calallenbaseball on Apr 1, 2012 11:03:49 GMT -6
Magnolia beats Brenham to tie for first
Updated 11:20 p.m., Friday, March 30, 2012
MAGNOLIA - As nice as Friday's 7-4 win over Brenham was for Magnolia, the Bulldogs have little time to celebrate.
Behind a potent 1-2 punch at the top of its batting order, the Bulldogs forced a first-place tie in District 17-4A by giving the Cubs their first loss. Sophomore Noah McGowan and senior Conner Lee combined for five of Magnolia's six hits, each with two doubles and a pair of RBIs.
"Those two boys - they beat us tonight," Brenham head coach Jim Long said.
Magnolia (13-4-1, 5-1) is back at it Saturday, playing a Montgomery team that went into Friday tied with the Bulldogs behind Brenham (15-5, 5-1).
But against Brenham, Magnolia wasted little time in getting things going.
After starting pitcher Kyle Black retired the side in the first, including two of his 10 strikeouts, McGowan singled up the middle on the first pitch. Lee and Justin Hickman walked to load the bases with no outs, with McGowan scoring on a wild pitch. An error followed and Magnolia pushed the lead to 3-0.
It stayed that way until the fourth inning. Brenham put two runners on for Ryan Newman and the Cubs' catcher smashed a home run to right to tie the game.
"When you're playing a team like Brenham, you have to answer their scoring runs," Magnolia coach Jason Fojt said. "So when they scored those three runs, I told them, 'Guys we have to come out here and we have to answer. We talked about it all week, whose going to step up and do it?' "
It was McGowan and Lee. With Cory Cantu on first with two outs, McGowan doubled off Brenham's Eric Stegent to the left-center field wall, putting the Bulldogs back on top. Lee knocked him in three pitches later with a double.
"It felt like the ball was on the (batting) tee," Lee said. "Every time I got up, he got behind in the count so I knew what was coming."
Added McGowan: "You can feel it. The intensity goes up in the dugout.
"Everybody's out there ready to play and win this game."
They scored again in the sixth, adding two more runs