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Postseason play is officially here for the Columbus varsity baseball team as their first-round matchup against Randolph is set up for Friday, May 5 in Flatonia as the teams vie for the Bi-district Championship. Before the Cards could shift their focus to the first round of the playoffs, they took on a pair of quality opponents last week as they looked to get a final tune-up before the postseason. The Cards started off with a loss to Hallettsville that conceded the tiebreaker in the district standings as both teams finished the season with a tied district record. They followed with a playoff warmup game against the Comanches of Shiner that ended in victory for Columbus.
Vs Hallettsville, L, 6-2 The second matchup between the top two teams in the district finished with the exact same score and result as the last time the teams competed against each other. Unlike in the first game where Hallettsville outhit the Cards by a big margin, Columbus actually outhit the Brahmas 5-2 as they found more success at the plate this time around. However, these hits did not necessarily translate into runs as they struggled to bring runners home and also sacrificed four errors on the defensive side.
It took Columbus a while before they got any runs on the board while the Brahmas built up their lead. The Cards failed to score any tuns in the first four innings while Hallettsville scored all their runs in a three-inning stretch with two runs each in the second, third and fourth innings. Columbus finally responded with two runs of their own in the fifth inning, but they could not find enough offense after that point as they closed the game with two more scoreless innings.
Ryan Lewis had the highest hit total for the Cards, finishing with two hits and drawing a walk as well. Leadoff hitter Ryan Carter batted in both runs for the Cards as his single brought home two runners following a wild pitch that moved them into scoring position.
Vs Shiner, W, 3-2
The Cards had a much stronger defensive effort to end the week against Shiner during a postseason warm up match. Despite being outhit 7-6, the Cards did not give up any free bases on errors as they played a clean game in the field. On offense, Columbus took their opportunities as they arose with a single run in the first inning and one run each in the third and fourth innings. The Cards held Shiner scoreless in the first three innings before conceding a run in the fourth and another in the sixth as the Comanches closed the gap. The Cards stayed sharp to end the game as they prevented Shiner from scoring the tying run in the bottom of the seventh to claim victory.
Ryan Lewis and Conner Geisler each led the team with two hits including a double each. Lewis, Ryan Carter and Trevor Berger contributed an RBI each as they brought in the winning runs for the squad.
James Janek got the start on the mound and threw out four strikeouts before being relieved by Dylan Zajicek and Conner Geisler who helped slow the Comanches down offensively.
