Happy Valley opened the District 1-2A Baseball tournament with a statement but was unable to carry the momentum into the second game.
The No. 5 Warriors rolled to a 14-2 win over No. 4 Johnson County in the opening round of the West Greene pod but fell 18-0 to the No. 2 Buffaloes in the winner’s bracket final at West Greene on Wednesday night.
Happy Valley will square off against Johnson County at 6p on Thursday in an elimination game with the winner advancing to take on West Greene on Friday afternoon in the pod final. The winner will have to defeat West Greene twice on Friday to advance to the Championship game.
In the opening game, HV had a pair of big innings to grab a postseason win.
After the Longhorns took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, Happy Valley went to work in the top of the second.
Carlos Lopez and T Johnson opened the inning with singles and Lopez scored off a Cade Kendall single.
Johnson crossed home plate after a JC balk, and Kendall scored when Lane Parker put the ball in play that forced a Longhorn error. Grady Goulds extended the lead with a double that allowed Ron Paul Parker and Carson Sells to touch homeplate, and HV capped the inning as Aiden Hartsook scored off a walk.
That allowed HV to take a 6-1 into the second.
Johnson County got a run back in the bottom of the third, but neither team was able to score in the fourth and fifth.
Happy Valley took full control in the sixth.
Jamie Esterline and Drew Blevins reached base to open the inning. Esterline scored off an error, and Johnson had a two-out single that allowed Parker and Goulds to score.
The Warriors kept the inning going as Parker Williams reached base via a Longhorn error, and a Kendall double plated Johnson and Williams. HV kept the two-out run going as L. Parker hit a double to score Kendall, and Blevins added a single that allowed Esterline and Sells to score to give HV a 14-2 lead after the top of the sixth.
Blevins struck out the side in the bottom of the sixth to secure the win.
Goulds finished the game by going 3-for-4 with two RBI. Kendall went 2-for-3 with three RBI, while Johnson and Blevins each had two hits and two RBI. Esterline had two hits.
L. Parker added one RBI and a hit.
On the mound, Blevins struck out eight batters and allowed just two earned runs on four hits in six innings of work.
Happy Valley was unable to keep the momentum going in the winner’s bracket finale.
Braden McCamey had a grand slam to open the scoring for the Buffaloes, and West Greene plated six runs in the second and six more in the third to take control.
Lopez had a hit for HV, while Goulds and Blevins drew two walks each.
