Published: March 17, 2008 02:23 pm            

Weatherford rally falls short against Granbury

A two-run rally by the Weatherford Kangaroos in the bottom of the seventh inning fell short by a run, giving the Granbury Pirates a 7-6 District 4-5A win at Raymond E. Curtis Field Friday night.

The Roos opened the inning with a leadoff walk by Colton Burnett who was followed by Taylor Massey with a single. With two men on and nobody out, Jordan Ellington stepped to the plate and delivered an RBI-single to make the score 7-5 with runners at first and second. After a pitching change, Colton Rhodes grounded into a questionable 6-4-3 double play, which had both Weatherford base coaches hollering at the field umpire, who also drew the ire of the Roos fans. Colton Matlock followed with a two-out, RBI-single to make the score 7-6. The game ended one batter later when Kevin Manning hit a line drive to the shortstop.

“They’re really competitive, they play hard and they’re going to do that all year,” Weatherford head coach Terry Massey said of his team. “That’s what they’re made of. If we can just cut out the mental mistakes we’re going to be fine. We can’t get picked off at second base, we can’t have passed balls and we can’t turn a single into two runs instead of one.

“But as far as the competitiveness, I’m real proud of them, and they’ve done that several times.”

The Roos grabbed the early lead and led through the first four innings on the strength of a solid start from pitcher Josh Easley. However, leading 3-1 in the top of the fifth, Weatherford paid for back-to-back walks and an error which opened the door for a four-run inning by Granbury, which gave the Pirates a 5-3 lead. Easley was replaced on the mound by Taylor Massey, who eventually gave way to Colton Rhodes in the seventh.

“Offensively, we are better,” Massey said. “Like I said, when it comes to one run ballgames, it generally comes down to who makes the least amount of mental mistakes and [Granbury] made less than we did and they won.”

The Roos didn’t wait long to respond, adding a run in the bottom of the fifth, but Granbury was able to tack on a run in the sixth and one in the seventh to take a 7-5 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh.

“[Thursday’s] practice was real average for us,” Massey said. “I told them that after practice. I said, ‘You know what, your performance today is going to be how you play tomorrow.’ We had a very average practice [Thursday] and we had a very average game tonight. We can’t let that happen. When it’s time to practice, we’ve got to go. We can’t go through the motions.

“Like I said, I told them that [Thursday] and it carried over, unfortunately.”

Weatherford played Western Hills Saturday. Results of the contest were not available as of press time.



Granbury 7, Weatherford 6

Granbury 000 141 1 — 7 7 2

Weatherford 201 010 2 — 6 8 1

Calderon, Johnston (4), Blackmon (7) and Galvan, Hannagan (7); Easley, Massey (4), Rhodes (7) and Matlock. WP — Johnston. LP — Easley. 2B — (GHS) Johnston; (WHS) Ellington. SB — (GHS) Hudson; (WHS) Burnett.

        

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