Johnson City baseball beats Kenedy to advance to regional finals

The Johnson City High School baseball team beat Kenedy two games to one in the Class 2A Region IV semifinals series May 27.

“We’re now two wins away from the state tournament,” head coach Steven Shipley said.

Next up is the Class 2A Region IV best-of-three finals series against Shiner at Marion High School, 506 Bulldog Lane in Marion. Game one is at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 1. Game two is at 5 p.m. Friday, June 2. Game three, if necessary, will be played after game two.

Shiner finished the 2022 season as the state runner-up. It returns pitchers Ryan Peterson and Drew Wenske, who are completing their final year of high school eligibility.

“They went 33-1 (last season),” Shipley said. “They lost in the state championship game. They’ve been there.”

Johnson City advanced to the finals thanks to winning game three 10-0 after losing game two 14-2.

“We knew after they won game one, they had to throw their next best pitcher,” Shipley said. “That wasn’t going to leave them with many options. With (Johnson City sophomore pitcher) Johnny (Slawinski) on the mound, we feel pretty confident.”

That confidence showed from the start of the third and deciding contest.

The Eagles took a 1-0 lead after the first inning then added seven runs in the fifth and two in the sixth for the victory. They recorded 11 hits and didn’t commit an error.

Meanwhile, Slawinski was his usual self by allowing one hit in six innings with nine strikeouts.

The Lions won game two thanks to plating six runs in the first inning and eight in the fourth. They had 10 hits.

Still, Johnson City senior pitcher Ryan Shipley and Kenedy’s ace pitcher Rylan Reyna had similar stats. Both struck out four and Shipley threw 17 first-pitch strikes while Reyna threw 16.

The difference is the Eagles had two runs off five hits. In the 4-1 win in game one, the Eagles had three hits.

“We left a lot of runners on base (in game two),” the coach said. “We weren’t getting our timing down. We made mistakes, they got big hits, we didn’t put the ball in play when we needed to. In game three, we were getting our timing down the second time through the lineup. We made things happen. We played small ball and got a quick lead. That put pressure on the other team.”

Tate Ledbetter led Johnson City with 3 RBIs off 2 hits, while Ryan Shipley had a 2 RBI single and McCray Jacobs had 1 RBI off 3 hits.

The coach credited Ledbetter for “breaking the game open” with a 2 RBI double.

“Ryan’s hit extended the lead to five,” his dad and coach said. “We had two key hits back to back. They took their pitcher off the mound.”

Ledbetter had 1 RBI in the second game.

The coach noted the Eagles aren’t conceding game two, adding the players are walking onto the diamond with the intention of completing the sweep. Still, when an opponent is faced with a must-win in the second game to force a third contest, it won’t save their best pitcher.

“We always show up with the expectation of winning game two,” he said. “We know when we show up we could be playing three games. We always knew it was an option. You can either have a slight advantage in game two or a big advantage in game three.”

Watch videos on Highland Lakes sports by going to Fierro’s YouTube channel and searching for The Broad Podcaster. Please like, subscribe and share.