KATY ISD TOURNAMENT

vs. Paetow, Thursday, February 27th

The Sophomore Spartans opened the KISD Tournament with a dominant win over Paetow. Peter Banks opened the game for the Spartans, giving up one hit and one run (zero earned) over two innings, striking out 4 and walking one. Paetow opened the scoring in the first after a ground-out scored a run, but that was the last opportunity their offense had for the rest of the contest. Jackson Seel and Nate Sandidge each threw scoreless innings in relief. Seel pitched two innings, gave up no hits, and secured 5 strikeouts. Paetow simply couldn’t touch his fast ball. Sandidge also allowed no hits and had one strikeout in his one inning to close the game. It was a great effort by all three pitchers.

Offensively, the Spartans really got things going by scoring six runs in the second inning. Gus Green doubled, scoring one run; Callen Corley loaded the bases with a single up the middle; Hudson Good drew a walk, scoring one run; Jack Lasseigne singled, scoring one run; Noah Kerr singled, scoring two runs; and an error scored one run. The Spartans amassed 9 hits, 6 walks, and 4 stolen bases. Lasseigne led the Stratford Sophomores with two hits in 3 at-bats. The final score was 8-1, Spartans on top in a lopsided victory.

vs. George Ranch, Thursday, February 27th

Game two on Thursday evening was a bit more challenging, and unfortunately the result was not what we had hoped. Hudson Good started on the bump for the Sophomores and faced a dynamic offense by George Ranch, giving up 4 hits and 4 runs (3 earned) over one inning, striking out two and walking two. The Spartan offense made a run in the second inning to help the team when Nate Sandidge led off with a single to centerfield, then Luke Carl singled to right field, and Clay Emery singled to right field, scoring one. Then Joel Torres ground out to the shortstop but secured an RBI when Carl scored. At this point the score was a close one, Spartans 2 and George Ranch 3.

The bottom of the second inning was a bit nerve-wracking as Noah Kerr had come in relief with bases loaded and only one out, but an unassisted double play by third baseman, Connor Treadway, ended the inning without much damage done. Unfortunately, our offense stalled out for much of the remainder of the game, scoring no more runs, due to a dominant pitcher that George Ranch let ride for 4 innings. Clay Emery led Stratford with two hits in two at-bats. The bottom of the 4th was when the contest truly got out of hand as George Ranch scored 4 additional runs, leading to a final score of Spartans 2 and George Ranch 9. The game saw 3 relief pitchers in Noah Kerr (2 innings), Clayton Croley (.1 inning), and Westy Bennett (with .2 innings).

vs. Cinco Ranch, Friday, February 28th

The Sophomore Spartans lost a heartbreaker to Cinco Ranch in their third game of the KISD Tournament despite out-hitting Cinco Ranch 10-4. The Spartans' offense was hot right from the start as Hudson Good started the game with a line drive to right field, Joel Torres singled to left field, and Jackson Seel was hit-by-pitch, loading the bases. A fielder’s choice out by Clay Emery allowed Good to score. Then Westy Bennett hit a bases-clearing bomb to left field, scoring 2 more for a total of 3 runs scored in the first inning alone. Luke Carl led things off, giving up zero hits and zero runs over two innings, striking out two, and walking three.

In the top of the third, Connor Roe singled on a fly ball to right field, Nate Sandidge singled on a line drive to center field, and Callen Corley ground out, but brought in Roe for the team’s 5th run. At this point, the score was 5-0 and the Spartans felt like they had a comfortable lead in the top of the 3rd. Unfortunately, by the 4th inning, Cinco Ranch was gearing up for a comeback. After a clean 3rd inning by reliever Andrew Williams, he suffered 3 (unearned) runs in the 4th. Despite a lead-off double by Lance Picott, the Spartans couldn’t secure any additional runs in the 5th. Jackson Fleming came in in relief in the bottom of the 5th, and despite his best efforts, allowed a fly-ball single to walk-off the win for Cinco Ranch, with a final score of Stratford 5 and Cinco Ranch 6.

vs. Katy Tigers, Saturday, March 1st

On what could only be described as perfect baseball weather, with clear skies and 77 degrees, the Sophomore Spartans visited the Katy Tigers ball field. Realizing Katy had an undefeated record thus far in the season, the Spartans knew it would be a challenge and they came to play. This was a defensive battle with some excellent pitching from both teams, allowing the game to go the full 7 innings. Stratford only allowed 2 hits all game, and Katy allowed 5 (Callen Corley led the team with 2). The Sophomores got on the board in the first inning when a costly error by Katy and solid base-running by Stratford allowed Clay Emery to get to second base on a ground ball. He then stole third on the next pitch, and stole home on a wild pitch, scoring one run. Connor Treadway started the game with a full-count walk but then found his footing with three straight outs, including a strikeout. The 2nd inning was 3 up, 3 down for both Katy’s pitcher and Treadway. In the top of the 3rd, Stratford saw some action on the base paths with a lead-off ground ball error by Katy, allowing Lance Picott to make it to first base. Peter Banks followed this up with a ground ball single to right field. Unfortunately, we left those runners stranded. Treadway threw one pitch in the top of the third, which was a high foul ball caught for an out by catcher Picott. Unfortunately however, after this pitch, Treadway walked off the mound, grabbing his elbow, and remained out for the rest of the game due to injury.

Without much time to warm up, Gus Green came into the game in relief and did great popping out the first batter, walking the next, and striking out the next for the 3rd out and no runs. While Stratford did not score another run, Katy was able to manage 2 runs in the bottom of the 4th despite terrific defense in the outfield including a diving catch by left fielder Banks and an excellent snag by centerfielder Emery. And while Corley singled to lead off the 5th inning, we couldn’t move him around to score him home, and no more runs would be scored by either team for the remainder of the game. Another telling factor in this game was the Spartans being caught stealing 6 times, leading to very untimely outs. Jackson Seel came in in relief in the 6th and 7th innings, pitching another set of clean innings and allowing no hits and no runs with 2 strikeouts. The final score was a close one with the Stratford Sophomores with 1 run and the Katy Tigers with 2 runs.

vs. Mayde Creek, Saturday, March 1st

The Sophomore Spartans finished off the KISD Tournament with a big win over Mayde Creek. The offense came out hot right from the gate with three hits in a row by Hudson Good, Gus Green, and then Jackson Seel scoring one run. Just as hot as our offense was, so too was our pitching as Jack Lasseigne started the game with three straight strikeouts!

Stratford was already back to the top of the lineup in the second inning when Good had his second hit of the day, scoring our second run of the day. Lasseigne continued to pitch well for 3.1 innings, allowing only ome run, 4 walks, and 7 strikeouts. The 3rd inning began with a single to the left fielder by Noah Kerr, an error by Mayde Creek advancing Luke Carl to first, and then a deep ball hit to left field by Jackson Fleming, scoring two runs. Good continued his tremendous day with yet another hit to begin the 4th inning. By the end of the 4th, Stratford was up 8-0 thanks to hits from Green and another big double from Westy Bennett. Clay Emery came in in relief in the 4th and 5th innings, allowing just one hit, 2 runs, and 3 strikeouts.

By the middle of the 5th, the Spartans were up 13-1 which included ANOTHER hit by Good (he went 4 for 4 at the plate), a double by Kerr, and multiple errors by Mayde Creek’s defense. Stratford allowed 2 runs for Mayde Creek in the bottom of the 5th, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the run-ruled victory for the Spartans with a 13-3 final score.

Sophomore Spartan Baseball continues their season with the Crosby Sophomore Tournament Thursday, March 6th through Saturday, March 8th.