Burnet baseball beats Llano in home opener
CAPTION: Burnet senior Dash Denton (1) greets teammate Will Johnson after he scores a run for the Bulldogs during their home opener against Llano. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Burnet High School baseball team dominated Llano 22-0 Feb. 26 in its home opener.
The Bulldogs (5-1) were simply overpowering in every phase of the contest and set the tone in the first inning.
Burnet junior pitcher Kade Shaw (2-0) struck out the first batter he faced, gave up an infield single, struck out the third batter, gave up a double to center-right field, and walked the fifth batter. But he ended the bases-loaded threat with a strikeout to force the Yellow Jackets to strand three.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs sent 17 batters to the plate in in their half of the inning. Llano’s starting pitcher didn’t make it out of the inning after coaches made a change. Burnet led 12-0 thanks to 6 hits and several free bases going into the second inning.
The game was over in about two hours.
“We swing it really well,” Burnet head coach Russell Houston said. “We jumped on him early and it snowballed. A lot of it is experience. They know what our expectations are. Hitting is contagious. When one kid hits, we all seem to hit. We got hot early.”
After lead-off batter Noah Crawford drew a walk, Will Johnson hit a RBI double to center field that ignited his teammates, Houston said.
“That set the tone,” the coach said. “After that, it’s really contagious.”
What makes the Burnet batters dangerous is their patience at the plate. They chased very few bad pitches, didn’t try to do too much, and didn’t let the count bother them.
“They started to press a little, and we relaxed a little,” Houston said.
By the end of the game, Burnet had 16 hits with Johnson, Dash Denton, Trenton Park and Shaw accounting for 12 RBI between them.
Meanwhile, as the lead grew, the Bulldogs simply played defense behind Shaw, who finished with 7 strikeouts and 4 walks in four innings. Burnet made every routine play, and the outfielders showed speed to take away what looked like Yellow Jacket hits that usually produce multiple bases. And most importantly, the Bulldogs didn’t commit an error.
“We played solid defense,” Houston said. “We were throwing strikes and playing solid defense. That’ll keep you in a lot of games. You can kind of relax and go play. There’s not a pressure you put on yourself. You learn to relax.”
Burnet hosted the home opener after going 3-1 at the Fredericksburg tournament. Their lone loss was to Austin McCallum 3-0 where pitcher Denton matched the Knights out for out. The coach commended his senior pitcher on his performance.
“It was a loss to a pretty good (McCallum) pitcher,” he said. “We wanted to go 3-1 and had a chance at 4-0. The guy throwing against us was really good.”
The Bulldogs defeated Big Spring 10-2 Feb. 23 with Cooper Faris (1-0) as the winning pitcher. Trey Morrow had a two-run homer in the first inning. In the first game that day, Burnet beat Llano 14-3. Morrow hit a solo homer in the bottom of the fourth inning to spark a nine-run inning.
They began the tournament with an 11-5 victory against Austin Regents with Shaw and senior Gilbert Valdez on the mound. Crawford and Denton produced at the plate.
In all the Bulldogs played five games in five days.
“We have to do that because we have another tournament coming up,” Houston said. “It’s good. These kids have played 8,000 games since they started playing at 5 years old. The kids have played a lot of baseball for me and they know how and what the expectations are.”
As part of the Llano tournament, Bulldog Diamonds serves as one of two sites for the event. Burnet faces Fredericksburg at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 29, the Copperas Cove junior varsity at 9:30 a.m. and Elgin at noon both on Friday, March 1, and finishes against Elgin at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 2, all at Bulldog Diamonds.
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