The Wortham Bulldogs took to the area round of the Class 2A baseball playoffs and ran into a tough matchup against the Crawford Pirates.
The Pirates dominated Thursday’s doubleheader with 10-0 and 17-1 wins at the Waxahachie Baseball Complex at Waxahachie High School.
Wortham was coming off a dominating performance against Itasca and Crawford took a pair from Lipan in the bi-district round.
The Bulldogs were the visitor in game one of the series and played three outstanding innings both on the offensive and defensive side, by getting base runners on but could not get them around. Cade McCoslin led off the first with a single but a line out and a pair of strikeouts stranded him on the bases. Anthony Fortoul was hit by a pitch in the second but the Bulldogs left a baserunner on first when the Pirates got out of the jam. Lane McDaniel reached on a single but he was caught stealing to end the inning.
McCoslin was on the mound and with good pitching and timely defense for the first portion of the game. A couple of solid catches in the outfield by McDaniel and Tanner Bean kept the Pirates off the scoreboard, and a nice catch by Cash Perez behind the plate on a foul ball. The teams were scoreless through the first three innings.
In the bottom of the fourth, Carter Hooser singled followed by one by Tanner Merenda. A ground out moved the runners to second and third and Cooper Gohlke singled to bring in both runners and the Pirates took a 2-0 lead. Good pitching and defense got the Bulldogs out of the inning only trailing by the 2-0 score.
Crawford scored six more times in the fifth inning six hits and raised the score to 8-0 and the Bulldogs would not register a hit the remainder of the game. Crawford added two more runs in the sixth to take the 10-0 game one win.
The second game put the Bulldogs as the home team and the Pirates scored four times in the first inning. A walk, two singles and a fielding error loaded the bases and paved the way for Crawford to gain the early lead. Cash Perez was the starting pitcher, on the mound after catching in game one.
Crawford would add seven more runs in the second inning sending 11 men to the plate. Several fielding errors contributed to the run total rising and the Pirates held an 11-0 lead after two innings.
The Bulldogs would get one run across in the home half of the fourth inning. Ryken Lewis placed a hit along the left field line for a double. He moved to third on ground out by Michael Chasteen, making his first start in a while coming off a leg injury. Fortoul grounded out to shortstop and picked up the RBI when Lewis came around to score.
The long day end with the Pirates gaining six more runs on walking in a couple of runs and singles in the 17-1 game two loss, eliminating the Bulldogs from the playoffs.
