One of my stock phrases when I broadcast a diamond sport – baseball or softball – is, no matter how many games you’ve seen in your life, if you watch any game closely enough, you’ll see something you’ve never seen before.
This seemed to apply especially so for me this season. Earlier, I wrote about the regular season softball I covered. As you’ll soon see, I was just getting started.
March 29 - St Thomas of Houston at Our Lady of the Lake baseball (first game)
The weird began in a big way with this one.
1) In the 3rd inning, OLLU’s Javi de Alejandro threw to first base trying to hold St Thomas’s Jason Brown on. The throw got past first baseman Frankie Martinez, and would have allowed Brown to go to second base – but the ball hit the first base umpire and bounced back to Martinez, forcing Brown to stay at first.
The next pitch, Brown was caught stealing to end the inning.
2) In the 4th, St Thomas’s Cameron McClure was caught stealing to end the 4th.
3) In the 5th inning, OLLU’s on deck hitter was ejected. Yes, the on-deck hitter.
4) In the sixth inning, Lance Kahn drew a one-out walk.
With an 0-2 count on Noah Martinez, Kahn stole second.
The next pitch, Kahn was caught stealing third.
Two pitches later, Noah Martinez had drawn a walk.
The next pitch, with pinch hitter Adam Scharf at the plate, Martinez is caught stealing to end the inning. It was the third time in the game an inning ended with a St Thomas baserunner caught stealing.
Scharf was replaced the next inning; his entire participation in the game was looking at the pitch where his teammate was caught stealing.
5) The score was tied 6-6 going in the 7th and final scheduled inning.
OLLU’s Matthew Klar led off and reached on an error. He advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw to first. (This one didn’t hit the first base umpire.) Noah Rodriguez’s sacrifice bunt advanced Klar to third, placing OLLU within 90 feet of triumph.
St Thomas intentionally walked Tyler Vivier to set up a force play. Under modern rules, no pitches are thrown on an intentional walk; the defensive coach points to first base, the home plate umpire echoes the gesture, and the batter goes to first.
At this point, OLLU planned to use Jarod Smith as a pinch hitter for Hector Rogerio. However, before OLLU Head Coach Brian Aughney could announce the substitution, St Thomas Head Coach David Wood had signaled to intentionally walked Rogerio! Strategically, it made sense because it loaded the bases and created a force play at home plate, but under the old rules, Smith would have entered the game as a pinch hitter, and St Thomas pitcher Josh Middleton would have thrown four pitches to walk Smith and load the bases.
Instead, Rogerio was issued the intentional walk, he went to first, and Smith never entered the game.
Then Pablo Trevino drew an unintentional walk to drive in the winning run.
FINAL: Our Lady of the Lake 7, St Thomas-Houston 6
March 29 - St Thomas of Houston at Our Lady of the Lake baseball (second game)
OLLU scored 7 runs in the first inning on two hits (an RBI single by Noah Rodriguez, a three-run triple by Anthony Valle.) OLLU hitters drew six walks that inning (Robert Arredondo drew two of them), and one batter was hit by a pitch.
For the game, OLLU had 8 hits and 11 walks, and SEVEN batters where hit by pitches, 3 in the 6th.
FINAL: OLLU 12, St Thomas-Houston 1
April 2 - LSU-Alexandria at Our Lady of the Lake (second game)
Our Lady of the Lake’s Trey Ramirez strikes out 15(!), and walks none against nationally ranked LSU-Alexandria, but is pulled with a 5-3 after giving up a leadoff double in the ninth on his 104th pitch. Ramirez ends up with a no-decision when LSUA’s Cameron Daigle hits a 3-RBI 2B with 2 out in 9th, erasing 5-3 deficit.
FINAL: LSU-Alexander 6, OLLU 5.
APRIL 7 – Clark vs Johnson baseball (Blossom)
A game which featured several of the wackiest plays I’ve ever seen. This also begins a string of misadventures involving the infield fly rule.
1) INFIELD FLY WEIRDNESS #1 - in the bottom of the third inning, Johnson trailed 4-1. Barrett Johnson and Mason Krahn were hit by pitches to start the inning, then Rohan Naik walked to load the bases. After Jake Neely took over as Clark’s pitcher, Caden Wallis drew a walk to drive in Barrett Johnson and make it 4-2, still with nobody out. Then Chad Pantuso hits a popup between home and first.
The infield fly rule, as many of you know, is in effect when 1) there are fewer than two outs, and 2) there runners at first and second OR the bases are loaded. When these conditions are met, the infield fly rule is in effect, and on a popup that can be caught by an infielder using “ordinary effort”, the batter is automatically out whether the ball is caught on the fly or not, and the runners advance “at their own risk.” Usually, an infielder catches the ball, so the infield fly rule is an afterthought.
Well, as you can infer, the infield fly rule was in effect, so Pantuso was out. But on this day, things got peculiar. Clark first baseman Kole Kinneson, having moved to just behind the mound, misjudged the ball and dropped it.
Then, amazingly, the runners advanced… at their own risk, of course.
Kinneson threw to shortstop Anthony Silva, who was covering second base. Silva, alert to the situation, tagged Wallis going to second for out #2; with Pantuso already out, Silva knew there was no force play in effect, so the tag was necessary.
While this was going on, Naik ran to third, leaving Krahn 15 feet away from third and no place to go but home plate. Silva then saw that Krahn was trapped, and he made the textbook move: he ran right at the baserunner. They then raced to home plate. With Krahn 15 feet from home plate, Silva dove to try to tag Krahn. Krahn stopped, Michael Jackson moonwalk style, and Silva flew in front of Krahn without being able to apply a tag. With Silva sprawled on the ground, Krahn continued to home plate. Silva threw to the catcher (his brother Jacob), but Krahn, narrowly averting a triple play, slid under Jacob’s tag and scored, making it Clark 4, Johnson 3. (Wallis then proceeded to run past Naik as though he were trying to score. Since he was already out, this was only a distraction.)
SO…. We have a 3-6 double play infield fly which scores a run. I’m not sure, but I don’t believe Pantuso is credited with a run batted in. From the time Neely released the pitch to the time Krahn scored was about 20 seconds. (Zach Besson then singled to drive in Naik and tie the game at 4.)
But wait. There’s more.
2) Johnson took the lead in the bottom of the 6th. Zac Jimenez led off the inning with a double, then went to third on an errant pickoff throw. Ryne Farber walked and stole second while Jimenez remained at third. Kaysen Cunningham popped up to third for out #1, then Barrett Johnson was intentionally walked to load the bases with Jaguars.
By this time, Matthew Flores-King had taken over at first base for Krahn, but under high school rules, the Jaguars are allowed to reenter a starter into the game once. Krahn thought he was returning to the game and even walked to the batter’s box, but Johnson coach Gordy Gesell walked ahead of him to the home plate umpire and told him Flores-King would remain in the game and hit.
With the bases loaded, Flores-King showed bunt, but pulled the bat back well before the pitch arrived and took strike one. This is a common ploy in high school when a batter has a “take” sign. Then next pitch, Flores-King DID get a bunt down. Since the bases were loaded, this took Clark completely by surprise. First baseman Kinneson fielded the ball, but couldn’t get a tag on Flores-King and had to let Flores-King pass him. But Kinneson had no play at the plate as Jimenez scored, then he had no play at first because no teammate shifted to cover first.
Johnson had taken a 5-4 lead, and still had the bases loaded with nobody out.
4) Naik then hit a routine fly ball to left field. (The infield fly rule was in effect, but this ball was hit too deep for an infield fly.)
Left fielder Joel Paez dropped the ball.
However, Paez recovered in time to throw to third baseman Eli Castanon to get a force on Barrett Johnson (the runner at second) and Castanon threw to second baseman Josh Vaughn in time to get a force on Flores-King (the runner at first.)
So, we ended up with another “routine” double play, 7-5-4. AND, because of the force outs, Farber crossing home plate did not count as a run, and the score remained Johnson 5, Clark 4. (This is exactly the sort of situation the infield fly rule is designed to avoid, because they don’t want infielder dropping balls on purpose and getting cheap double plays on base runners who don’t know where to run. But the ball wasn’t an infield fly, so the play stood.)
Then, after all that, Clark scored 8 runs on 3 hits in the top of the 7th.
FINAL: Clark 12, Johnson 5
APRIL 8 – Huston-Tillotson at Our Lake of the Lake baseball
INFIELD FLY WEIRDNESS #2 – This one was actually fairly tame. With Huston-Tillotson having runners on 1st and 2nd with one out in the 6th, Derrick Johnson hit a popup to the shortstop. Johnson was automatically out, of course, but OLLU shortstop Christian Martinez caught the ball (barehanded) on a bounce instead of on the fly. The infield at Missions Baseball Academy (OLLU’s home field) is turf, so this was minimal risk on Martinez’s part. I mainly mention it as a link from April 7 to April 9.
FINAL: Our Lady of the Lake 16, Huston-Tillotson 0
APRIL 9 – Huston-Tillotson at Our Lake of the Lake baseball (second game)
INFIELD FLY WEIRDNESS #3 – OLLU leads 5-1 in the bottom of the 8th. The bases are loaded with one out. Jarod Smith hits a popup just behind the first baseman. Thanks to the infield fly rule, Smith is out, but the ball drops among several fielders. In the confusion, all the runners advance, including Frankie Martinez scoring from the third. Smith was not credited with a run batted in, although I could enjoy making a case that this should be scored a 100 foot sacrifice fly.
FINAL: Our Lady of the Lake 6, Huston-Tillotson 1
APRIL 29 – University of Houston at Victoria at Our Lake of the Lady
UH-Victoria came to San Antonio for the final series of the regular season. OLLU took a 3-0 lead into the 8th. Brett Vasquez threw seven shutout innings, striking out 12, then left the game.
Then UH-Victoria rallied. Amilcar Montanez (grandson of former major leaguer Willie Montanez) doubled to lead off the inning, then Ty Williams and pinch hitter Ryan Mota walked to load the bases with no one out, bringing the go-ahead run to the plate.
Pinch hitter Richard Gill hit a grounder to new pitcher Layne Klostermann. It looked as the OLLU had gotten a huge break, as they had a great chance of getting the force at home, or even a 1-2-3 double play, giving the Saints a great chance to get out of the inning unscathed.
But Klostermann threw the ball over the head of his catcher Jonathan LaCourse, and it hit the backstop on the fly. Montanez and Williams scored to cut the deficit to 3-2. OLLU coach Bryan Aughney reported that in Klostermann’s 5 years at OLLU, this was the first error he had committed.
Raul Lopez then singled to load the bases. Darius Watson hit into a game-tying double play to drive in Mota, then Zach Lee singled up the middle to drive in Gil and give UHV an improbable 4-3 lead.
But OLLU came back in the ninth. Christian Martinez led off the inning with a double, then LaCourse drew a walk to put the winning run on base. Robert Arredondo sacrificed to advance both runners. UHV coach Terry Puhl (yes, the former Houston Astro) elected to pitch to Jacob Montejano because OLLU had one of the most dangerous hitters in the conference, Jacob Mitchell, on deck.
After fouling off a pair of 1-2 pitches, Montejano doubled to right field to drive in the tying and winning runs.
FINAL: OLLU 5, University of Houston at Victoria 4
APRIL 30 – University of Houston at Victoria at Our Lake of the Lady (first game)
Terry Puhl, as you might imagine for a 15 year major league baseball veteran, brought a wealth of baseball knowledge to his job. But one of the most interesting things I observed with Puhl was his creative use of the substitution rules.
In the NAIA, they have the same substation rules as high school baseball, meaning a coach may reenter one of his players once a game. Having broadcast amateur sports for 21 years, I’ve already seen many creative ways in which this rule is used. Puhl showed me something new.
The first game played on the 30th between UHV and OLLU started at 1 p.m. By the time it’s April 30th, it’s usually pretty hot in South Texas, making it pretty uncomfortable to whether catcher’s gear, including the chest protector, shin guards, and the mask.
James Turnbull was UHV’s starting catcher. After the top of the fourth, Hayden Leopold left the game in favor of Clayton Wenske. Wenske took over at catcher, while Turnbull moved to second, and got to play a couple of innings of baseball without wearing a ton of sweaty equipment.
When Wenske’s turn came up in the batting order in the 6th, Leopold reentered the game to hit for him. Then Leopold took over at second base, and Turnbull went back to playing catcher, where he finished the game.
Wenske was the UHV catcher for the second game that day.
FINAL: OLLU 4, UHV 1
APRIL 30 – University of Houston at Victoria at Our Lake of the Lady
OLLU already led 6-0 in the second inning and had Jacob Montejano at third and Sebastian Ledezma at first.
The UHV pitcher balked, scoring Montejano to make it 7-0 and advancing Ledezma to second.
After the UHV pitcher threw strike one to Frankie Martinez, the pitcher balked AGAIN, moving Ledezma to second. Puhl pulled the pitcher immediately without a word to the umpire; he clearly had no argument against the calls.
Turner Grisells took over on the mound with an 0-1 count to Martinez. Grisells gave up a single to Martinez to make it 8-0 OLLU, but pitched well overall, giving up one run and 2-2/3 innings.
OLLU finished the second inning with 7 runs on 3 hits, and with UHV scoring 3 in the 5th, 5 in the 7th, and 3 in the 8th, they would need almost every one of those runs.
FINAL: OLLU 13, UHV 11
Next: Part III, the 2022 High School Baseball Postseason
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