AUSTIN — Flatonia baseball faced off with Hawley High School in a state championship semifinal match June 5 at University of Texas' Disch-Falk Field that Hawley won in eight innings by a final score of 4-3. Some early errors from Flatonia helped score runs for Hawley and the Bulldogs hung tough with a late rally and sent it to extras, leading to Hawley scoring in walk-off fashion on a base hit.
“We dug ourselves a hole in that one inning where we made a couple of mistakes on throwing errors,” said Flatonia head baseball coach Shawn Bruns.
“Gave them three runs and that didn't help our pitcher out there. He was pitching on a short rest week and I thought he pitched his butt off for seven innings, then Beck came in and pitched well for his inning and two thirds. Our pitchers did our job, we just didn’t get enough hits. I tip my cap to their pitcher. We just couldn't get squared up on a couple balls when we needed to. It's just a great high school baseball game. They just got a few more hits when they needed to and we didn’t. That’s baseball.”
Bulldogs junior Beck Zimmerman caught behind the plate, pitched on the mound, and came up with some big hits at the plate to help put his team in position for a state title. "Hitting wise, I sat on his curve ball as much as I could cause I knew it was com - ing," Zimmerman said. "That was his best pitch. Fielding, I got a good pitcher and a good pitcher helps out a lot." Hawley didn't score until the top of the fourth inning with a sacrifice bunt, wild throw, and a double to put it at 1-0. The Bear - cats added two more runs in the same inning on a base hit and another wild throw.
Flatonia added their first run on a pass ball, then tied the game a three with a clutch single from Titan Targac to score two runs after a hit by pitch and a botched ball hit by Zimmerman. Hawley went back on top with an infield hit to second base and a single to right field, making it 4-3 in the top of the eighth inning. Hawley went on to close out the game with a pop out, ground out, and strike out to seal a bid to the state championship game at 4-3.
