BELLVILLE — Washington County’s road to the Little League World Series began Saturday morning with the soundtrack of thunder and the activity of sitting through weather delays.
Once the delays ended, the county’s Major baseball all-stars did not show their best stuff at the plate in a 2-1 loss to Grimes County. However, they remain in the Texas East District 13 tournament as the event’s double elimination format gives them a chance to run through the loser’s bracket.
After a brief, moderate rain shower prior to first pitch on Saturday, Washington County starting pitcher Reese Michalek kept Grimes County at bay despite allowing an infield single and a walk to open the game.
Just before Washington County could get its bats going in the first, a lightning delay prompted another pause. While the second delay lasted much longer than the initial delay, the all-stars kept themselves pumped up in the dugout with a playlist of classic tunes.
The energy continued in the dugout once play resumed a little after noon and carried over to the field thanks to an infield single from Wyatt Schramme. After a walk drawn by Everett Tiedt, a crucial baserunning mistake on a lineout to second base led to the eventual end of the inning.
Michalek led off the bottom of the second with a single. This time, the county all-stars took advantage of an inning-opening spark.
A base hit from Cooper Krenek turned into a run-scoring opportunity after an errant throw to third base. Micah Meyer, who reached on a fielder’s choice earlier in the inning, came around to score and give Washington County the opening run.
Grimes County tied the game at 1-1 in the third on a sacrifice fly to center field. Washington County made two errors in the inning prior to the sacrifice fly, one of only a few fly balls to the outfield from either side.
Washington County’s bats cooled off significantly after the first two frames. The county all-stars struck out 11 times after the second inning. Six of those strikeouts came looking with two further strikeouts in the second also coming by looking at strike three.
WC coach James Franke said his team’s performance at the plate did not reflect the hard work it put in batting practice before the tournament. The county all-stars spent five days a week for three weeks working on hitting, in addition to other facets of the game.
“It was not overwhelming pitching that we should have hit it,” he said. “That was what was really aggravating.”
Woes at the plate did not faze Washington County’s pitchers. Michalek did not allow an earned run in 4 2/3 innings of work, striking out five with five walks. A lot of his misses were considered good misses by his coaches, coming just off the plate.
“He was a little bit nervous at first, but then he kind of settled in,” Franke said. “He did everything I expected or had hoped for.”
After Michalek’s pitch count maxed out at the 85 pitches allowed, Schramme came in from center field to relieve his teammate. He earned 1 1/3 innings of solid work with four strikeouts and one hit allowed.
Grimes County did score an unearned run to take a 2-1 lead, though. A routine grounder to third base was mishandled in a two-out situation, allowing the leading run to come home.
“The one error gave up the one run and that was not (Schramme’s) fault,” Franke said. “He came in with the bases loaded and he got the ground ball that we wanted.”
Focus turned immediately to facing Hempstead in the loser’s bracket. Franke said he took notice of Hempstead’s solid showing in the opening round despite a 8-7 loss to Weimar.
“They looked pretty good,” he said. “We got to come out and play defense tomorrow (and) pitch well.”
The Washington County-Hempstead game was originally scheduled for Sunday evening. However, persistent rain in Bellville pushed a date and location change.
Washington County got home field advantage because of the change as both loser’s bracket and winner’s bracket games scheduled for Monday were moved to Brenham.
If Washington County defeated Hempstead, it would play at 8 p.m. Tuesday against either Sealy or La Grange.
Originally published on brenhambanner.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.