by Robert Halliman
The stage was setbrand the stars were aligned at Dragon Baseball stadium in Southlake last night asbrtwo of the top ranked teams in the state of Texas the Southlake Carroll Dragonsbr(33-4-1) and Flower Mound Marcus Marauders (32-7) squared off in Game 1 of thebr5A Regional Playoff'. A rematch of lastbryear's bi-district round of the playoffs, that saw a victorious Dragon teambrtake a series in three games over last years senior laden Marauders. The Dragons looked the part of team trying tobrcontinue its quest to a state title cruising to a 5-2 win over the Maraudersbrafter sweeping Midland in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs last week.
For a team whose pitching staff posted a 1.71brERA and 15 shutouts throughout the year, the script seemed to have writtenbritself yet again Thursday night. The Dragons— ranked no. 4 in the Nationbrby Baseball America thanks to great pitching, quality defensebrand active bats resurfaced in a game that never really seemed in doubt. Carroll was led by, sophomore pitcher BenbrLeeper whose fastball hummed its way to a complete game, and seven strikeoutsbragainst an offensively talented Marcus squad.
The Dragons gotbroff to a fast start in the first inning putting pressure on Marcus sophomorebrpitcher Jack Cushing from the get go, scoring three of their first five runs inbrthe inning. Third baseman and Texas A&M Football signeebrKenny Hill started things off with an RBI single, followed by a two run single batted in by catcher NicbrMotley. Marcus eventually responded withbrtwo runs in the third sparked by Catcher Matt Bernstein’s two run double thatbrput Marcus one run behind the Dragons but, that wasn’t enough as the Dragonsbrbats came back to life adding two more runs in the fifth behind a single bybrHayden Zier and a sacrifice fly from Chris Altimont.
Southlake Carrollbrwill be looking to close out the series away from home tonight againstbrthe Marauders with ace pitcher and TCU signee Tyler Alexander (12-0) 0.65 ERAbron the mound.
1 of 4
2 of 4
3 of 4
4 of 4