LUFKIN — Bryson King was nearly untouchable on the mound and Sawyer Thigpen delivered just enough offense with a fourth-inning RBI double as the Lufkin Majors stayed perfect in the District 10 tournament with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Tyler East at Morris Frank Park Thursday night.
King allowed just one hit and one walk as only two Tyler East baserunners reached base. He struck out eight in the shutout effort.
His strong night put the local all-stars a win away from winning the district championship.
“He really pitched a great baseball game,” Lufkin manager Bud Maddux said. “He really gutted it out.”
On a night he only needed 80 pitches to finish a complete game, his biggest test came after an hour-long lightning delay. Before the break, he had allowed one hit and no walks in three shutout innings.
After the break, he started the fourth inning by allowing a walk and throwing seven of eight pitches out of the strike zone. Even that turned out to be a minor hiccup as he came back from a 3-0 count for a strikeout. He struck out the next batter and induced a groundout to get out of the inning.
No one else reached base as he struck out four batters in the final two innings, eventually retiring the final nine batters that came to the plate.
“We had that delay and he came back,” Maddux said. “The first batter he was a little rusty and the second one he fell behind. He came back and struck him out and pretty much everybody else after that. You just don’t know how kids are going to come back because you sit over there and get cold. But he got over it and finished it off.”
His effort was necessary thanks to a stellar night on the mound from Tyler East’s Jacob Robles, who matched King’s zeroes for most of the night. He allowed one earned run on five hits with two walks, one of those intentional, and one strikeout in five innings.
Declan McClanahan pitched a shutout inning for Tyler East, which had a bye in the opening round of the tournament.
Lufkin threatened in the first inning when Knox Renfro and Griffin Luce had singles. But first baseman Caleb Albritton made a nice defensive stop on a grounder to get out of the jam.
Tyler’s best bid for a run came in the bottom of the inning when Tatum Torbert drilled a shot to left field. Tiernan Chala chased it down just shy of the wall to keep the game scoreless.
Lufkin (2-0) got on the board in the fourth inning when Thigpen delivered a two-out opposite-field RBI double that made it 1-0.
Truitt Trotti singled and Gunner Havard was walked to load the bases.
That’s when lightning struck in the area, leading to an almost hour-long delay.
When the game resumed, Robles induced a fly ball to center that ended the threat.
From there, the pitchers took over with each team having only one base runner the rest of the way
“We would have liked to have more, but we just didn’t hit the ball with authority like we have been,” Maddux said. “We got several hits. We just didn’t get the runs. They played really good defense. Their centerfielder made two really good plays and their shortstop made every play that came his way.”
Lufkin hitters were Thigpen (double, RBI) and Renfro, Luce, Trotti, George Henderson and Ford Guillory (single).
Jackson Matthews had the only single for Tyler East.
Tyler East will meet Tyler West Saturday night. The winner of that game will advance to the championship game to play Lufkin at Morris Frank Park at 7 p.m. Monday night. A Lufkin win would clinch the district title, while a loss would set up a winner-take all game for the championship to be played later.
The winner advances to the Section 1 tournament, which will be played in Lufkin.
“That’s nice that it’s here,” Maddux said. “But right now, we’re just worried about the next one.”