* Needville 4 Bridge City 3 Final/Game 1*

[KFDM COOP]

[move]Needville wins game 1 4-3 on base hit. Catcher drops the ball.[/move]

[KFDM COOP]

Game 2 Friday night.

[tigerpride_08]

shocking...i guess Needville came to play...well, i suspect another good game tomorrow...

[bh89-2]

Didn't Huffman beat Needville earlier in the year? 

Bridge City is in the same boat as New Caney with Stringer losing game 1.  Go get-m Cards....... :-\

[kkinetic]

Who will pitch for Bridge City tomorrow?

[KFDM COOP]

Meeks or Hicks!

[BUNA95]

Good luck in game 2

[Critter]

And hope for a better Ump tooooooo....    Anyway Needville looked pretty good..

[Red1]

Stringer did not appear to have his magic tonight.....hey sometimes the good ones have a "off night".  Don't get me wrong, not that he stunk or anything, just seemed to have trouble spotting his breaking stuff.  Needville batters can indeed hit the fast ball!

The BC batters were befuddled with the offspeed stuff from the Fresh pitcher from Needville.  The Coach calling the pitches for them, did a great job.

All in all, Needville got the hits in a timely fashion.  They looked a little ragged during warmups, but played good fundamental baseball in the game.

BC will have to pick it up a little to stay, I think they are the better team, but did not show it tonight.

Needville looked like there was a little weakness in the catchers arm going to second base.....but we did not seem to try and exploit it.

I think it will be Meeks tomorrow.

[East TX]

I was impressed with both teams tonight.  They both played high-quality playoff level ball.  This game had some great plays and really no mental errors or bad errors.

[MIF04]

Good solid playoff game.  Stringer did not have his best command but still threw pretty well (and swung the bat well).  Needville's P (a freshman) did what pitching is all about -- disrupting timing.  Needville played very solid, got every bunt down, etc.  Battled every at bat, put a lot of balls in play.  BC didn't.  I'm not sure why BC didn't walk the last hitter with 1st base open?  Just a tough loss for BC, and a great win for Needville.  BC needs to have a better approach at the plate tomorrow.  We will see...

[KFDM COOP]

Needville sinks Bridge City in Game One

Gabe Pruett

The Orange Leader

MONT BELVIEU — Bridge City second baseman Troy Bolton was quick to point out the Cardinals' problem Thursday in their Game 1 loss to the Needville Bluejays.

"We were not mentally prepared one bit," Bolton said after his team's 4-3 loss at Barbers Hill High School. "Something else was on a lot of people's minds and it wasn't just who we would play next round. School gets out soon and then there is graduation. People need to realize we are still playing baseball and need to realize it soon."

The Cardinals (23-6-1) allowed the Bluejays (22-8) to come all the way back from a 3-0 deficit after the third inning to tie the game in the bottom of the fourth. Game 2 of the series will be at 7 p.m. tonight back at Barbers Hill High School. Game 3, if necessary, will also be at Barbers Hill High School at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Needville scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth after Rikky Salazar led the inning off with a walk off Bridge City starter Jeff Stringer.

Bridge City then went to freshman Matt Hicks to relieve Stringer and Needville's Mike McGuire quickly laid down a bunt to move Salazar to second.

Pinch hitter Bradley Porras then ripped a single to center in front of Bridge City's Johnny Dishon.

A play at the plate was then set up with Salazar charging for home. The throw home was in time and Bridge City catcher Casey Jackson's tag was also on target but the ball just squirted out his glove allowing Salazar to score the winning run.

"We just didn't play well and I am not exactly sure why," Bridge City Coach Billy Bryant said. "It is a simple game and if you don't play well then you don't give yourself a chance to win. We give them credit because they did what they needed to do to win the game."

The first three innings were all Bridge City as the Cardinals built on a 2-0 lead in the third off a home run by Jackson with one down.

Jackson's blast cleared the right field fence with one down off Needville starter Kolbie Hajdik.

Bridge City had scored in the first inning as Dishon reached after Bolton led the game off with a walk. Dishon hit into a fielder's choice and took second on a stolen base.

Hicks then came up with a big RBI single to left scoring the speedy Dishon giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

The Cardinals scored again in the top of the second as with one down Stringer singled to center and courtesy runner Jaden Dillon stolen second.

Then with two down, freshman Joe Robertson picked up a RBI with a single to left scoring Dillon from second giving the Cards a 2-0 advantage.

From that point on Hajdik settled down and did not allowed the Cardinals to score again.

Hajdik worked all eight innings and gave up nine hits with three walks and seven strike outs.

Stringer meanwhile, gave up four runs on eight hits with three walks and seven strike outs.

"Physically we did not play that bad of a game but it could have been a lot better," Bolton said. "Things just quite did not go our way. They now have the momentum going into tomorrow and I am not even sure how they are going to come out and play. I just know we better come back here tomorrow and be ready to play."

Needville started to chip away at the Bridge City lead in the bottom of the second as McGuire hit a one-out infield single.

Janacek then moved McGuire to third with a sacrifice bunt and Kody Neel did the rest with a RBI single to center making it 3-1 Bridge City.

The Bluejays were not done as in the bottom of the third as Ryan Stack singled to right with one down.

Stack quickly stole second and Trey Porras brought home Stack with a RBI single to right making it 3-2 Bridge City.

Then in the bottom of the fourth, McGuire led off with a single to right field and moved to second when Cameron Janacek walked.

Kody Neel then advanced both runners with a nicely placed sacrifice bunt for the first out of the inning.

Todd Roberson then stepped up to the plate and the Bluejays went to the squeeze play to score McGuire.

Roberson laid down a perfect bunt and by the time Stringer gloved the baseball, McGuire was just a few feet from the plate and made it 3-3 Bridge City.

"Hopefully we come back and play to win," Bryant said. "We need to come here and play the game a lot better than we did tonight."

[Hupernikomen]

Needville appeared to be a good fundamental team that makes contact in the game I saw them, and their freshman pitcher was impressive too.  Had a little zip on the ball.

[Guest Bulldog]

Meeks on the Hill tomorrow.......

[Gabe]

Meeks will get it done. The Cards are not ready to go home yet. The problems they had can be fixed and I expect they will be.

[Frogger]

Needville appeared to be a good fundamental team that makes contact in the game I saw them, and their freshman pitcher was impressive too.  Had a little zip on the ball.

Needville had VERY good fundamental ball. Their coach put together an excellent game plan and his players executed it perfectly. They hardly ever rared back and really swung their bats. They played small, contact ball knowing Stringer had struck out so many batters in his two previous playoff games. Just put the ball in play and advance the runners. That's really frustrating and hard to throw strikes against and I was surprised Stringer still managed to strike out 7 batters. He never really seemed to find the umpire's strike zone. The defense has to play perfectly in small ball situation and unfortunately BC blinked a time or two and that made the difference. I hope BC gets their bats going again because I couldn't believe how many times they sat and watched that WAY outside pitch go by, knowing it was going to be called a strike. The ump was consistant in calling that for Needville's pitcher. BC just didn't seem to have a spark, but they'll get it together for the next 2 games.

By the way, have the rules changed recently? In high school ball, the runner from 3rd MUST SLIDE when the catcher is making a play at the plate. Needville's runner came in straight up and ran into Casey (who was clearly making a play) on one of those runs they scored. According to the rule book, that should have been an automatic out and no run awarded. That one play would have given BC the win 3-2.

All in all, not a really bad game for BC, just not a good one either. They are more than capable of coming back and winning the next two. Go Cards!

[hum-babe]

"By the way, have the rules changed recently? In high school ball, the runner from 3rd MUST SLIDE when the catcher is making a play at the plate. Needville's runner came in straight up and ran into Casey (who was clearly making a play) on one of those runs they scored. According to the rule book, that should have been an automatic out and no run awarded. That one play would have given BC the win 3-2."

[Guest Orangeboy]

Lets bounce back RED!!!

[Critter]

Strike zone, didn't know if the ump even had one... >

[AHUDDLESTON]

Waited until I had the rule book in front of me.  For this situation and the woodville match up with Hemphill: *rule 8-4-2c

"the runner is out when he: doesn't legally attempt to avoid a fielder in the immediate act of making a play on him."  Running into a catcher who has the ball is an OUT!  Every time in high school.

*nfhs baseball rules page 56

[Frogger]

"By the way, have the rules changed recently? In high school ball, the runner from 3rd MUST SLIDE when the catcher is making a play at the plate. Needville's runner came in straight up and ran into Casey (who was clearly making a play) on one of those runs they scored. According to the rule book, that should have been an automatic out and no run awarded. That one play would have given BC the win 3-2."

[AHUDDLESTON]

remember it doesn't say you have to slide, you just have to attempt to avoid contact.

[Frogger]

remember it doesn't say you have to slide, you just have to attempt to avoid contact.

He didn't

[Guest Bulldog]

Needville really was not great at all....but give them credit they made it happen when it mattered most....we need to hit the ball better in order to keep moving on. Last night was an off night wish it could have been different.

[Bobcatfan4life]

BC will come back strong today and tomorrow. They know what's at stake and they know how to get where they want to be. The bats will come alive......