Roos take series from Bronchos

Matt DeWalt
sports@weatherforddemocrat.com

May 05, 2008 02:58 pm

— The Weatherford Kangaroos and the Odessa Bronchos made the most of their time on the baseball field Saturday afternoon. In fact, they used more time than was allotted in Game 2, playing 10 innings before Weatherford finally notched a 3-2 win in the second game of a best-of-three bi-district series at Raymond E. Curtis Field to advance to the area round of the playoffs.
“It’s fantastic,” Weatherford head coach Terry Massey said of the win. “These kids deserve it. They’ve worked their phanies off all year. They’ve done everything we’ve asked.”
The Roos took the lead in the top of the 10th inning when Taylor Massey opened the inning with a leadoff double to right field. After a fly ball out to right field, Massey moved to third on a passed ball and scored on the play when Bronchos catcher Jose Longoria made an errant throw to third base that went into left field.
“You know, tonight, when you look at the score, we manufactured our runs,” Massey said. “We had a suicide squeeze, but other than that we had a passed ball and he read it and we scored. That’s something we work on in practice. We throw balls in the dirt and they see it and we take the next bag.”
Colton Rhodes followed with a walk to put another runner on base for Weatherford, however, he was stranded after back-to-back strikeouts by Odessa pitcher Derek Loera to end the inning.
The Bronchos opened the bottom of the 10th inning with a walk by Edward Ramirez, who moved to second on an errant throw to first base by Roos catcher Colton Matlock. However, back-to-back fly ball outs left Odessa with two outs and a runner on second base. A.D. Hinojos stepped in with a chance to possibly tie the game with a hit, but was struck out by reliever Josh Easley to end the game.
The Bronchos forced extra innings with a bases loaded RBI-single in the bottom of the seventh inning, and even made an attempt at the win, but a strong throw from Roos center fielder Colton Burnett was cut off by Kevin Manning, who turned and threw to catcher Colton Matlock at the plate for the third out of the inning. Odessa loaded the bases after the leadoff hitter reached on an error and Easley allowed a single and an intentional walk.
For the second time in as many games, the Roos and Bronchos went toe-to-toe on the pitcher’s mound with five total pitchers being used before deciding the contest.
Weatherford starter Taylor Massey ran into trouble in the bottom of the fourth inning, allowing two Odessa runners to reach base with no outs. Jordan Ellington came in to replace Massey after back-to-back walks. Ellington induced a fly ball out to left field, but walked the following batter to load the bases. Ellington worked out of the jam with a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. Ellington ran into some trouble of his own in the bottom of the sixth inning and was replaced by Game 1 winner Easley after back-to-back one-out singles. Easley got the Roos out of the sixth with a fly ball to center and a strikeout.
“Taylor started out and didn’t have his stuff, but like I told him, he kept us in the ballgame,” Massey said. “Then, Ellington came in the ballgame and did a fantastic job and then we went with Easley hoping to be able to shut it down there [in the seventh], but they got a run. He was out of gas. As a matter of fact, when I went out there he said, ‘Coach, I’ve got one out, maybe two left.’ I said, ‘All right, I’m going to give you those two outs. I was getting ready to go out and check on him and he said, ‘Coach, I’ve got it.’ When a guy says that, I’m going to let him have one more chance.”
Odessa starter Hinojos worked what would have been a complete game, but when the game went to extra innings he was replaced on the mound by Derek Loera, who took the loss in Game 1.
The Roos took Game 1 in the series Friday night when Matlock took one for his team against the Bronchos when he was hit in the middle of the back by a fastball from Loera to leadoff the top of the seventh inning. Matlock was replaced by courtesy runner Weston Pedigo, who later scored the go-ahead run on a two-out, RBI-double by Ellington, giving Weatherford a 2-1 lead.
“I told them before the game, ‘With this kid [Loera], the team with the least amount of mistakes is going to win. As far as pitching goes, if we throw strikes and play defense, we’ve got a chance,’” Massey said. “We fielded the ball and made a couple of great plays, so we did a good job there.
“We executed the little things. Both runs came after a sacrifice bunt. We had to play station to station and then we came up with some big hits.”
The Roos secured the win in the bottom of the seventh when Easley recorded two strikeouts against the first two batters of the inning and induced a ground ball to shortstop Colton Davis to end the game.
Easley came in to replace Weatherford starting pitcher Rhodes in the bottom of the sixth inning after Rhodes worked five innings without allowing a run. Rhodes and Loera, who worked a complete game in the loss, were engaged in a pitcher’s duel throughout the first five innings allowing two and three hits respectively.
“He did exactly what we wanted him to do,” Massey said. “I told him, ‘If you can give us four innings, anything more than that would be gravy,’ and he did. He was at about 80-something pitches and that’s about when he started to get tired so we went in with Josh [Easley] and he came in.”
The Roos got to Loera in the top of the sixth when Davis drew a leadoff walk and was pushed to second on a sacrifice bunt by Taylor Massey. Davis later advanced to third base on a pitch in the dirt and slid head first under the tag to give Drew Wirsing a chance for an RBI. Wirsing worked the count full, but was caught looking for the second out of the inning, leaving Davis on third. With two outs, Rhodes stepped to the plate and sent an 0-1 pitch into the outfield, scoring Davis and giving Weatherford a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth, Easley replaced Rhodes on the mound and recorded the first out of the inning on a short comebacker to the mound. He worked to a full count on the following batter, Bronchos designated hitter Richard Cerda, but was tagged for a solo home run, which stayed just inside the left field foul pole. After the homer, Easley induced a fly ball to left for the second out and recorded a strikeout to end the inning.
“That kid that hit the home run is a heck of a hitter and you can see why,” Massey said. “He pitched well and he hit the ball well, too.”
With the win, the Roos advance to meet Amarillo in the area round with a site and time to be determined.

Game 2
Weatherford 3, Odessa 2 (10 inn.)
Odessa 001 000 100 0 — 2 9 3
Weatherford 100 100 000 1 — 3 8 4
Massey, Ellington (4), Easley (6) and Matlock; Hinojos, Loera (8) and Longoria. W — Easley. L — Loera. 2B — (WHS) Rhodes, Massey; (OHS) none. SB — (WHS) Burnett; (OHS) none.

Game 1
Weatherford 2, Odessa 1
Weatherford 000 001 1 — 2 5 0
Odessa 000 001 0 — 1 3 1
Rhodes, Easley (6) and Matlock; Loera and Longoria. W — Easley. L — Loera. HR — (WHS) none; (OHS) Cerda. 2B — (WHS) Ellington; (OHS) none. SB — (WHS) Manning, Davis; (OHS) none. CS — (WHS) Lara; (OHS) Teegarden.