Jacket baseball bounces back with series sweep
A late surge by the Cleburne Yellow Jackets featured six runs in the final two innings, leading to a 7-4 win over Mansfield Timberview Thursday night at Mansfield Timberview High School. Jacket baseball (15-7, 3-5) earned a much-needed series sweep over the Wolves heading into the Easter break, keeping its playoff hopes alive as the fifth seed in the District 8-5A standings. The most important series for the Yellow Jackets follows with two games against fourth-place Everman (3-4).
With wins over the Bulldogs, Cleburne will likely finish the season as the fourth seed. After a blowout win earlier this week, 16-0, game two of the series began with a sacrifice fly from Beaux Douthitt to give the Jackets a quick 1-0 lead. The score held for the next 3 1/2 innings with quick innings on both sides, including a great performance from pitcher Carter Howe on the mound.
Howe went 4. 1 innings, only allowing one earned run on three hits and struck out six. The Wolves got to Howe a bit before he was switched out for Luke Edmiston in the fifth inning.
Just before the swap, Timberview knocked in three runs on as many at-bats off an RBI single, hit by pitch and walk. Down by two in the sixth, Douthitt led off with a hit by pitch. On the next at-bat, he stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball before Zander Ballenger brought him in on an RBI single.
The second hit by pitch of the inning to Wyatt East put two runners on for the Jackets. A groundout advanced the runners to second and third before Timberview struck out the next batter. Although the Wolves got Ty Cavett to swing for strike three, a passed ball on the pitch allowed Cavett to reach first base safely and Ballenger to score the game-tying run.