KINGWOOD — Just before the clock struck midnight on Friday night, the proverbial clock on the Brenham Cub baseball season did the same.
Brenham (19-13-1) lost Game 2 of its bi-district series against Kingwood Park (26-7-1) 9-3 Friday night, leading to the end of its season.
Friday’s game did not start until 9:30 p.m. due to inclement weather. Once both teams were given the clearance to begin warmups, excitement filled the Kingwood Park High School athletic complex from both teams. Surrounding lights turned on brighter and a playoff buzz filled The Park.
Brenham opened the game strong with a big burst of energy thanks to the speed of Caleb Maurer. Following a two-out walk from Barrett Kohring, Maurer hustled his way to an infield single on a ground ball to shortstop to keep the top of the second alive.
Junior leadoff hitter and shortstop Dalton Hart also hit a ground ball to shortstop with the bases loaded. Kingwood Park looked to get a force out at second base to get out of the inning, but Maurer slid in safely to allow Cannon Credeur to score.
Junior starting pitcher Dawson Keim kept Brenham’s momentum going with three great opening innings. He allowed just one hit and one walk through those innings to keep the Cubs in front.
However, Kingwood Park began to get to him in the fourth with back-to-back ground ball singles in the fourth. Keim got to a two-out situation, but allowed a two-RBI double up the middle to give up the lead and make it 2-1 in favor of the Panthers.
He got out of the inning with a strikeout and allowed fellow junior Drake Bentke to take the stage and leadoff the top of the fifth.
Bentke wasted little time tying the game with a home run that barely got over the right field wall, hitting his fifth home run of the season on the third pitch of the at-bat.
The big fly was the highlight of a 2-for-4 night for Bentke, giving him his 12th multi-hit game of the year.
Bentke recorded Brenham’s only multi-hit game of the night, but six other Cubs recorded one hit each Friday. Brenham matched Kingwood Park with eight hits Friday. The Cubs also matched their Game 1 output of eight hits.
Brenham had a golden opportunity to take the lead as Landry Mendoza drew a walk and Luke Hardy produced another one of Brenham’s eight hits into left field. Mendoza moved over to third base with one away, but failed to tag up on a fly out to left field. He later was tagged out at home after Grady Gee laid down a bunt.
A strikeout from Kohring ended the inning.
Kingwood Park hopped on the chance to snatch all momentum away and produced three straight singles to begin the bottom of the fifth. Blake Heckman earned an RBI single in the middle of the three-single stretch to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead.
Kingwood Park executed a bunt well with the Cubs unable to apply a tag at home plate in time, giving the Panthers a 4-2 advantage.
Keim got into a two-out situation, but had the bases loaded. He walked in a run before two straight Brenham infield errors allowed three more runs to score.
The errors spelled the end of Keim’s night after 4 2/3 innings. He struck out three Panthers, but allowed seven hits and two walks to go with eight runs.
“Even when the moment starts to get uncomfortable, he keeps us in the game and starts to fill it up and continues to throw it over the white and unfortunately, tonight, we just were not able to make the plays behind him when it counted,” Wheaton said.
Brayden Steele induced a ground out to get Brenham out of the inning.
Though the Cubs were out of the fifth, Kingwood Park made Brenham’s climb back into the game an uphill hike rather than being only a hit or two away.
“Little doubt creeped in there at that point, I think, for the first time this series and it got away from us,” Wheaton said. “That is a good ball club (in Kingwood Park) that will make you pay when you make mistakes.”
Steele allowed a sacrifice fly in the seventh after giving up a walk and a single, but kept offensive production at a minimum afterward.
“That is an experience he will be able to take with him moving forward and leaving his sophomore year,” Wheaton said. “He will be better for all the experiences he has had this year and he has got a bright future.”
Brenham failed to produce a rally at the plate, going down in order in both the sixth and seventh innings. The final out was recorded just one minute before midnight as disappointment rolled into the early minutes of Saturday.
A large senior class of 13 Cubs saw their Brenham careers come to an end. Wheaton said the remaining weeks of the school year will be spent appreciating the seniors’ efforts throughout their careers, especially after a co-district championship season and a return to the playoffs for the first time since 2022.
“Those guys are going to put their jersey up the right way, just like they have done their four years here and I appreciate the heck out of all of them,” he said. “They continued to fight and stick together when our backs are against the wall and I can not say enough about those guys and the way they are going out.”