Burnet baseball sweeps Jarrell
CAPTION: No matter the situation in the first game against the Jarrell Cougars, Burnet junior pitcher Mason Watson didn’t lose his cool, his focus or his composure in keeping the opponent from scoring. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
The Burnet High School baseball team defeated Jarrell 17-4 April 10 and 2-0 April 7 for the Bulldogs’ second District 24-4A sweep.
Burnet is on a four-game district winning streak.
“We pitched really well both games, but they had a pitcher that I will say was effectively wild (April 7),” Burnet head coach Russell Houston said. “(Jarrell pitcher Bryan Tibbitts) gave us a little bit of trouble. We didn’t score a lot of runs on him. He was able to keep us off-balance.”
The Bulldogs scored a run in the first inning and a run in the fourth inning off two hits. Lyndon Harycki, who scored one of the runs, got on base three times thanks to a single and two walks and had three steals for a new career high. Cason O’Hair had a RBI single and the other run was scored by freshman Hudson Crawford.
“When I say effectively wild, it’s where they are not throwing a lot of strikes, but they’re throwing just enough strikes, and it’s hard to get a rhythm on swinging the bat,” Houston said. “Sometimes you can hit really, really good pitching because you know they’re going to be around the (strike) zone all the time. And sometimes you struggle with kids who throw ball one and then ball two and then they throw a strike and then they throw ball three and then they throw a strike and then they throw ball four and then they walk two kids in a row. And your other kids are like, ‘OK, you need to be patient,’ then all of a sudden he feeds three fastballs that you foul one off and you miss one and then you’re in a bind. So (Tibbetts) just kept us off balance, and he did a really good job of pitching.”
Just not better than Burnet junior pitcher Mason Watson, who had 14 strikeouts and allowed one hit and six walks in 5 1/3 innings. Cade Park got the save with one strikeout and allowed no walks or hits in the final 1 2/3.
If the Cougars hoped the right player would get walked and Watson would miss on a pitch, it simply never happened, the coach said, and he never thought it would.
“He just kept them off-balance so well, and all night long I wasn’t ever worried about us not being able to score,” Houston said. “It was frustrating. We left the basis loaded five times, so it’s not like we didn’t have opportunities to score. We just didn’t get the job done with two outs.”
He described what Watson and Friday starting pitcher Cohen Jorpeland mean to the program.
“He has typically been our most consistent guy, him and Cohen Jorpeland,” the coach said. “Mason is one that we know what we’re going to get out of him. He’s going to throw strikes, he’s going to be competitive in the zone, and he’s what you consider a really good high school pitcher. He’s a kid who doesn’t get flustered. He’s a kid who doesn’t worry if something bad goes wrong, and I think that’s probably the biggest and most important thing about him. He doesn’t get frustrated if mistakes happen behind him. He’s like ‘so what? Let’s just go on to the next pitch.’ And I think that’s a great mentality. He trusts his guys behind him. But if something does go wrong, it’s like ‘all right, that’s fine, let’s go. We’ll get the next one.’ And I think that’s a huge advantage for him and for us when he’s pitching, because pitchers can get very frustrated if mistakes happen behind them, and then they feel like they have to do it all themselves. And so he’s one that doesn’t do that. Jarrell doesn’t swing it super great, but (Watson) did throw a lot of strikes.”
Though Houston said the Bulldogs “struggled a little bit” in the series opener, they had no problems in the rematch.
The Bulldogs plated six runs in the first inning en route to the blowout that ended in five innings.
“We swing the bats better and were able to score runs early,” he said. “So a little bit different We were able to score runs early and anytime you can score runs early it helps everything else out.”
Jorpeland hit a triple and O’Hair recorded 3 RBI.
“It was just a really big night for everybody,” Houston said. “Everybody felt comfortable at the plate and started swinging it, and it was a good night overall.”
The Bulldogs have a district bye will travel to Lago Vista for a noon contest Saturday, April 18. They will end the regular season against Georgetown Gateway with a road trip there Tuesday, April 21 then welcome the Gators Friday, April 24, with the junior varsity playing at 4:30 p.m. and the varsity at 7 p.m.
CAPTION: Senior pitcher Cohen Jorpeland delivers another pitch and is one of two starters on the mound who play with consistency and calmness, according to head coach Russell Houston. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
