Ponies Finish Week 5-0
Spring break treated Pony baseball well as they went 5-0 on the week to move their record to 19-9. The Ponies began the week by traveling to take on East Central in Mississippi on Tuesday. The Ponies took game 1 by a score of 9-6. Four Ponies had multiple hits in the game and Ryne Ray hit his second homerun of the year.
Game 2 of the double header was a big one for the Ponies. Michael Lawson had 3 hits, 7 runs batted in, and a grand slam homerun. Jordan Wiley and Cam Sibley also had multiple hits on the day. The Pony offense exploded for a total of 17 runs scored. The pitching staff did their part by striking out 14 hitters over only 7 innings pitched. The Ponies won by a final score of 17-3.
On Thursday the team continued Region 14 Conference play by taking on Angelina College. Thursday's contest was a home game in which the Pony offense banged out 4 homeruns on the day. Michael Lawson, JJ Flores, Cam Sibley, and Christian Boulware all took their turn launching a ball out of the ballpark. The Pony pitching staff held its own lead by a bullpen appearance from Zach Goree. Goree came in and threw 3 and 2/3 shutout innings while striking out 4. Chris Edwards closed the game out by striking out the final 2 hitters of the game. The Ponies struck out 11 total hitters on the day. Game 1 final score was 7-4 in favor of the Ponies.
Saturday's double header would be a good one for the Ponies. After being down 6-0 going into the final 2 innings, the Ponies rallied back to score 5 runs respectively in each of the final two innings to win 10-7. Ryne Ray delivered the knockout punch by hitting his 3rd homerun to break the tie and give the ponies an 8-6 lead in the top of the last inning. Chris Edwards was masterful out of the pen coming in and shutting down the Angelina attack over the final 3.2 innings to allow the Pony offense to make a surge. The Pony offense exploded for 11 of their 13 hits in the final 2 innings. Ponies won game 1 in a thriller by a final score of 10-7.
Game 2 of the double header started how Game 1 finished with the Ponies swinging hot bats at the plate. The offense scored 10 runs through the first 4 innings and put up 17 for the second time this week. Michael Lawson led the way with 5 hits and homeruns were added by Christian Boulware and Jordan Wiley. Angelina tried to make a push late but the Pony Pitching staff and defense put a halt to attempt. Ponies win game 3 of the series and take their first conference sweep of the year by a final score of 17-7.
*Notes*
Michael Lawson led the offense all week by finishing the week 14-21 with a double, triple, and 2 homeruns. He also scored 9 times, drove in 12 runs, walked 4 times and didn't strikeout.
The Pony offense scored 60 runs throughout the week and hit 9 Homeruns.
The Pitching staff struck out 47 hitters in the 40 innings pitched during the week.
The Ponies are back in action this week with a mid week Game against UT-Tyler and another conference series with Navarro. Saturday's double header against Navarro will be at home for the Ponies.