Day one of the Gary Herrington tournament

Today we took the field against Langham Creek and Port Neches-Groves at the annual Gary Herrington tournament here in Baytown. Though we wound up being beaten soundly by both teams, facing competition of the caliber is very helpful and enlightening for a young team like ours. Our youth and inexperience were evident as we were taken to task in each and every phase of the game.

First we took on Langham Creek, a ranked team from West Houston that is fresh off a stretch of games in the Woodlands tournament last week that included a run-rule victory over the #6 ranked team in Texas 5A baseball, Corpus Christi Carroll. The Lobos are a playoff-tested team that has several great hitters in the lineup. They combined an aggressive approach at the plate with the small field at Lee HS and strong winds blowing out to left-centerfield to hit four two-run HRs in route to a 11-1 victory. Bradley Armstrong started and took the loss for BCA and Tyler Wilson was 2 for 2 at the plate with a double. Wesley Winn finished the game on the mound in relief of Armstrong and Josh Torres and Clay Wiseman both looked good at the plate.

Next up we faced perennial 4A playoff power Port Neches-Groves. The Indians are a well-coached ball club with a lot of talent and size and they are always a force in Southeast Texas baseball. The PNG starting pitcher attacked the strike zone with an above average fastball, the best we have faced this season, and seemed to have our young lineup over-matched early in the game. The score ended up 12-3 when the game was called after 5 1/2 innings due to tournament game time limit. Tyler Wilson again led the Bulldog effort at the plate, going 2 for 3 and hitting three balls hard. Josh Torres started and took the loss for the Bulldogs, as Cameron Gregory and Robert Russell each pitched in relief. Down 12-0 in the fifth inning, the boys rallied to avoid a second mercy rule defeat thanks to hits from Wilson, Cameron Johnson, Ryan Bertram, Tyler Beasley, Robert Russell, and Brandon Horne.

As I wrote before, this tournament is a great opportunity for our program as we step up several notches and take on some of the big boys in Houston area baseball. For a small private school like us it is a chance to compete with teams that we are not given a chance to beat, and we fully expect to come out tomorrow and beat Baytown Lee on their own field. Then we expect to come out on Saturday and defeat whatever opponent we are matched up against. The increased level of talent in the other dugout provides the test that enables us to see where we are capable and where we are found wanting. With a young roster like we have, we need teams to come at us hard and aggressive in order to see where we need to grow. Our young Bulldog sluggers are still adjusting in the batter's box to facing experienced varsity pitching and our lack of innings in the field together shows up when we don't execute as sharply as we like on the mound or in the field.

Lessons are to be learned from today's experience, and we will strive to improve in every area as we continue our march toward the TCAL state title. Today we took a couple shots on the chin, but we are tough and hungry and we will get back up and show up tomorrow with plenty of fight as we take on the Ganders and we hope to see a crowd full of Navy blue cheering us on!