Indians erase five-run deficit to take Game 1
Brenham High School junior Kevin Kubeczka threw four shutout innings to start Wednesday night’s area-round playoff game against Port Neches-Groves, but the Indians came back from a 5-0 deficit to defeat the top-ranked Cubs at Baytown Sterling High School. Richard Bray/Reprints at
www.brenhambanner.com By RICHARD BRAY/Sports Editor
Published:
Thursday, May 12, 2011 11:41 AM CDT
BAYTOWN, Texas - The top-ranked Brenham Cubs jumped out to an early lead thanks to a pair of blasts over the left-field wall. It turns out that they needed a little more.
Port Neches-Groves took advantage of a pair of late errors and starting pitcher Austin Stone hit a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning to give the Indians a 7-5 victory and push the defending state champions to the brink of elimination.
The Cubs led 5-0 after 4 innings, but PN-G rallied for seven unanswered runs in the final two frames.
Game 2 of the series will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Tomball High School. If the Cubs win, Game 3 will be played at 2 p.m. at Humble High School.
“It’s another game,” Brenham (28-5-1) coach Jim Long said. “We lost one, we know the feeling and we’ll come determined to play. With Ty (Schlottmann) on the mound we like our chances and I think we’ll be ready come Tomball on Friday.”
The Cubs took the lead in the third inning after Dillon Knebel hit a one-out single and Chance Bolcerek followed with a double. Stone, who has signed to pitch with Baylor next season, got a ground ball for the second out before junior left fielder Jesse Baker hit a line drive over the left-field wall to make it 3-0.
“That was a shot,” Long said.
The Cubs got another big shot two innings later. Knebel reached on a leadoff error and Bolcerek hit an opposite-field shot to make it 5-0.
But the Cubs would manage just two hits the rest of the way while PN-G battled its way back into the ballgame.
Brenham starting pitcher Kevin Kubeczka looked sharp in the early innings of his playoff debut, working around two singles in the first inning but allowing just one more hit until the fourth, when the Indians opened the inning with four consecutive base hits, including an RBI double by Colton Ward and an RBI single by Amir Jalali.
Kubeczka was replaced by senior Zach Jacobs, who was victimized by two errors and an RBI infield single by Jayce Nelson.
“They didn’t hit one of them hard off Zach in that one inning,” Long said. “I thought Zach did a good job, but they hit it in some spots we just couldn’t get to it.”
Jacobs hit a one-out double in the top of the sixth inning, but after leadoff man Drake Roberts popped out and designated hitter Dillon Knebel reached on an error, courtesy runner Dane Wunderlich was thrown out attempting a delayed steal of second. Long said after the game that Wunderlich, a junior varsity call-up, was supposed to draw the throw to second base and then return to first.
Jacobs walked two of the first three batters in the bottom of the sixth before he was replaced by junior Shea Nutt, who got the first batter he faced, PN-G cleanup hitter Brandon Provost, to ground out before Stone laced a two-run double into the left-field gap.
“You’ve got to give them credit,” Long said. “They kept fighting back and did a great job. That’s why you play two out of three, because you never know what’s going to happen in a ballgame. It would have been nice to go ahead and win this one but it didn’t happen so we’ll get ready. If they beat us again, they deserve to go on.”
Baker, who finished 2-for-4 for the game, hit a two-out single in the top of the seventh, but Nelson got an infield fly for the final out of the game.
The loss ended a 21-game win streak for the Cubs, who had not lost a game since March 4.
“What beat us was dinks. That’s why baseball’s so crazy,” Long said. “People hit shots and they catch them, and people don’t hit shots and they’re base hits. What are you going to do? You’ve just got to keep scoring runs.”
PN-G, which defeated Crosby in a three-game bi-district series to advance to the area round, improved to 22-9 on the season.
“It’s just exciting to know that we won the first one and (Brenham’s) got to beat us twice,” PN-G coach Mark Brevell told The Beaumont Enterprise. “It’s great momentum just for the kids. They know they can do it now.”
The Cubs still have their ace, Schlottmann, slotted to throw in Game 2. Schlottmann, a Texas A&M signee, is 8-1 on the season with a 2.77 ERA.
Schlottmann threw a complete game last week in the Cubs’ 7-2 bi-district victory over Huntsville, carrying a perfect game into the sixth inning. He struck out 12.
“They have a lot of confidence in Ty when he’s on the mound,” Long said. “We’ll respond Friday. We’ll show up, I guarantee you. We’re not going home yet.”