The sun has set on the regular season for the Aledo Bearcats baseball team and for the second straight year, they are district champions.
The season came to a hectic end on Saturday, April 30, in Wichita Falls, with three straight wins in 24 hours. After ending the regular season with a 7-3 mark in District 5-5A, Aledo shared the league title with Azle and Wichita Falls Rider, setting up a three-team playoff in Wichita Falls.
The Bearcats won that mini-tournament, blanking Azle 7-0 and edging Rider 4-3.
Aledo’s first-round playoff series will be against the Denton Broncos (18-10), the fourth-place team in District 6-5A. The Broncos fell just one game back of their district championship in one of the toughest districts in Region I-5A.
“They’re going to try to out baseball us,” Aledo coach Chad Barry said of the Broncos. “They have a coach who is a great baseball mind. They’re not going to beat themselves. They’re going to play a clean game and we’re going to have to match it.”
The series will take place at Southlake Carroll High School. Game 1 will be at 4:30 p.m. Friday, May 6. Game 2 is set for a noon first pitch on Saturday, May 7, with an if-needed third game to follow 30 minutes after the completion of Game 2.
But first, the Bearcats (21-10 overall, 9-3 district 5-5A) made the trip up north on Friday, April 29 for the final regular-season game with the Wichita Falls High Coyotes (8-18, 1-9).
“I reminded the guys of Brewer,” Barry said. “Brewer beat us 1-0 earlier this year when we didn’t take them seriously and they’re the same team that got run-ruled by Wichita Falls earlier this year. I told them that it is still a district game and anything can happen.”
Aledo had no problem getting out in front early with two runs in the second inning on a double by Bryce McCain. The next inning the Bearcats reeled off six runs to make it an 8-0 game.
The Coyotes scored three runs in the third but that was all they were able to muster. Aledo added three more runs in each the fifth and sixth innings and the game ended by run rule with a final score of 14-3.
The win guaranteed a share of the district championship and a chance to win the crown outright the following day. On Saturday morning the Bearcats took the field in Wichita Falls to take on the Azle Hornets (18-5, 7-4), who the Bearcats had already swept two weeks prior.
“We definitely had an advantage,” Barry mentioned about the quick turnaround. “We played at 4:30 on Friday and most of our players decided to stay in Wichita Falls with their families so they didn’t make the drive back. So they got rested as opposed to Azle, who had senior night and beat Granbury in a long game so they were a little more tired and that definitely played to our advantage.”
Hunter Rudel took the mound for Aledo and pitched lights out for a full seven innings, only allowing two hits in his shutout performance. David Jones drove in the first run for Aledo with a single that drove in Andrew Cambre.
Max Belyeu followed up in the third inning with a two-run double to center field. Cambre drove in Belyeu two plays later, and Ryan Jones drove in Cambre to make the score 5-0 after three innings.
Estevan Flores sparked the fourth inning when he drove in Trace Mazon, before Cambre polished off his big game by driving in Colton Whitmire. Rudel closed out the game with ease and the Bearcats defeated the Hornets, 7-0, setting up a district championship game with Wichita Falls Rider (20-8, 7-4).
The Bearcats were just one week off of getting swept by Rider, and had the disadvantage of being at Rider’s home field.
Things got off to an inauspicious start when pitcher Ethan Jaques walked the first two batters of the game. The next batter singled in the first run of the game for the Raiders. Another run was added in the fourth inning, making it a 2-0 deficit for the Bearcats.
“I think the boys were frustrated,” Barry recalled. “We left five runners on in the first two innings and we were already down. They seemed to be pressing and I just kept telling them to stay on course. I said ‘You don’t have to hit a triple. A single up the middle works wonders. Just put the barrel on the ball.’”
Aledo got on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning and took a 3-2 lead with a three-run inning, including a bases-loaded walk by Belyeu. Rider responded in the fifth inning to tie the game.
Carter Shands came in for relief in the sixth inning and held the Raiders silent for the rest of the game.
In the eighth inning, Trace Mazon doubled to center field and found himself at third base on a sacrifice bunt by Jaques. Max Belyeu was intentionally walked in the next at bat to put the runners at the corners. Estevan Flores bunted on the first pitch he saw and Mazon raced home for the winning run.
“I told Trace to get a good secondary lead,” Barry recalled. “I said, ‘If you see it on the ground, you’re gone. Go full-on, dead sprint and slide if you have to.’ Then he did and it was just a sigh of relief. We finally beat those guys.”
The Bearcats got their revenge on Rider with a 4-3 win, the official district title, and the number one seed for the playoffs.
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