Burnet baseball completes sweep of Jarrell

CAPTION: Burnet’s Matthew Valdez hit what turned out to be the game-winning RBI against Jarrell in the third game of the series. Photo by Stennis Shotts

The Burnet High School baseball team slipped past Jarrell 7-6 March 22 to beat the Cougars in all three games this season.

Burnet head coach Russell Houston tipped his hat to the Cougars, noting they fought with all they had.

“It’s extremely hard to beat somebody three times in a season,” he said. “You learn so much of someone’s tendencies.”

The Bulldogs (17-2, 7-0) put their fortunes on the right arm of senior pitcher Dash Denton, who pitched 6 2/3 innings. When he reached his pitch limit, Cooper Faris took over.

“Cooper hasn’t been getting to pitch a bunch,” Houston said. “What he did, that — to me — was super impressive for someone who hasn’t gotten mound time. He went in and threw strikes.”

Jarrell had a base runner who stole second and moved off the base too far. That allowed the Bulldogs to throw him out at third to end the game.

Burnet scored early, Houston said, “which is always beneficial,” by plating 4 runs in the first inning and 2 in the second. But Jarrell got 2 runs back thanks to hits off the wall for doubles.

“It put us in shock mode,” the coach said. “It doesn’t happen all the time.”

The Cougars scored 4 runs in the third to tie the game at 6-6.

“They had saw (Denton) once already,” Houston said. “That’s part of it. They compete and hit the ball. And they didn’t walk anybody, which makes things harder.”

Trey Morrow scored the winning run on a hit by Matthew Valdez in the fourth inning.

But it could have been more.

Denton hit a ball that went over the fence. The Bulldogs thought it was a home run.

“The umpire called it foul,” Houston said. “I’m sure that would have relieved the stress of things going on.”

The outcome was what the Bulldogs wanted, and Houston believes the way they gutted out this victory will only help.

“It’s always a good thing to find different ways to come out on top,” he said. “I think our kids are resilient. I think they’re extremely confident. It doesn’t matter what situation you put them in, they find a way. We didn’t hit the ball super well. It’s good to win a one-run game.”

Burnet is at Lampasas at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 2.

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