Dateline: April 24, 2008
Broncs, Ladies win co-champ titles in baseball, softball
By
Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise
Clarendon High School boys and girls are both going to the playoffs after terrific seasons.
The
Broncos put together a great season and finished their District run with
only one loss. That loss came
at the hands of Follett, who shares the District Championship with the
Broncos.
The
Broncos sealed their championship at home Saturday, April 19, with a big
17-2 win over Booker. They
will play Follett in a seeding game on Monday, April 28, in Fritch at 4:00
p.m. to decide who gets the number one seed in the playoffs.
Offensively,
the Broncos were on fire behind the good pitching of Johnny Gaines.
The freshman pitched four scoreless innings for his third win of
the season.
“Johnny
pitched four innings and gave up only three hits,” Coach Brad Elam said.
“He also struck-out six batters.”
Trevor
Leeper was three for four and scored four runs; J. Gaines was two for
four; Devin Noble drove in three runs; Dalton Askew had three hits and
drove in four; David Roberts had two hits (one of which was a long
double); Derrick Shelton had one long double and walked twice; and Stephen
Fowler drove in two runs.
Earlier
in the week, the Broncos annihilated Wellington at 20-0.
They completely ruled the game to add to their winning season.
“We
dominated all aspects of the game,” Elam said.
“Austin Howard pitched another great game giving up only two hits
(in the last innings) and struck out 10 hitters.
He is now 8-1 on the season.”
Also
according to Elam, the Broncos were fearless offensively.
“Everyone
in the lineup scored at least one run.” Elam said.
J.
Gaines 2/3, scored 4, one long home run (2nd of season), 2 walks
Trevor
Leeper scored 4, reached base 4 times, drove in 3 runs, had 2 stolen bases
Noble
scored 3, 3 hits
Howard
3 hits, drove in 3; Josh Krumweide and Troy Chambless had 2 RBI each
The
Broncos will pay at home Friday, April 25, against Bushland at 4:30 p.m.
They
will travel to Claude on Saturday, April 26, at 1 p.m.
The
Lady Broncos played well enough this season to finish in a tie
with Follett for the District Championship.
Their matchup with Follett last Tuesday ended in a five-run loss
for the Ladies to put them even with Follett for the season.
A
play off game with Follett will have been played as this paper goes to
press to decide the number one and two seeds for the two teams.
The game will be played Tuesday in Fritch at 4:30 p.m.
A
win would give the Lady Broncos a bye in the first round of the play offs,
and a loss would mean a match up with Electra on Wednesday of this week.
“We
don’t like playing on Wednesday,” Jack said.
“But we will be missing about three starters on Thursday because
of the Regional Track Meet.” If
the Ladies win, they will play Ranger the following week in the second
round of the play offs.
The
Lady Broncos had a little trouble with Follett at home last Tuesday and
struggled against their pitcher.
“They’ve
got a good pitcher,” head Coach Gary Jack said. “We did a good job of hitting her the first time we played
them, but we struggled against her at home.”
According
to Jack, the game was fairly even through five, but errors allowed Follett
to gain the advantage when they connected on one hit to score five runs.
“It
was just one bad inning for us,” Jack said.
“All three of our losses came after one crazy inning.
They took advantage of our errors.”
The
Booker game was on the road Friday, April 18. It went in the favor of the
Lady Broncos at 18-2 in four innings.
Senior Sade Cobb was on the mound and pitched well.
“After
we adjusted to their slow-pitching, we hit the ball pretty well,” Jack
said. “We did what we had
to do to stay first.”