Burnet baseball beats Gateway, qualifies for the postseason

CAPTION: Burnet pitcher Cooper Faris baffles the Georgetown Gateway Gators with his power and control. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Burnet High School baseball team defeated Georgetown Gateway 13-8 April 22 in the Bulldogs’ final home game of the regular season.

It was the best way to honor the seniors, who were introduced with their families before the first pitch. And the win puts the Bulldogs into the Class 4A Division II playoffs.

“I just love these kids,” head coach Russell Houston said. “They found themselves back in the playoffs, so new season’s about to start. It’s the goal at the beginning of the year.” 

The Bulldogs scored two runs in the second inning only to see the Gators respond with a run in the top of the fourth to trim the deficit 2-1.

But the fourth inning is where Burnet shined.

Macke Calhoun drew a lead-off walk and went to second and third on a pick-off throwing error. Khris Kassner brought him home on a sacrifice fly ball to left field. Noah Crawford drew a walk then stole second and third and scored on a RBI double to center field by Alex Cantrill.

Trey Morrow brought Cantrill home on a RBI double to center field and later scored on a throwing error by the shortstop that allowed Drake Milam to reach. Cooper Alexander was hit by a pitch and Cason O’Hair drew a walk to load the bases. That brought Calhoun up for a second at-bat in the same inning.

This time he was hit by pitch to bring Morrow home. Kassner hit a 2 RBI double to left field and Crawford and Caantrill each drew walks. Morrow hit a 3 RBI double to give Burnet a 13-1 advantage.

By the end, the Bulldogs had scored 11 runs. So is that who this Burnet team really is?

“I think so,” Houston said. “That’s who we’ve been the last couple of years, and we’re capable of exploding at any point in time and putting up numbers – hitting the two-outs hit helps, especially when you got runners on.” 

But the Gators scored five in the fifth inning to ensure the game continued. They added two more in the sixth.

In all, Burnet scored 13 runs off 6 hits and 11 free bases. Gateway scored 8 runs off 10 hits, but only 3 runs were earned.

Morrow finished with 4 RBI off 2 hits, while Kassner had 3 RBI and a hit, Cantrill had 2 RBI and a hit and Milam and Calhoun each had a RBI.

The hitters mixed in solid hits to gaps, sacrifices and even bunts to keep the Gators guessing at what they’d do. The coach said the ability to manufacture runs in a variety of ways illustrates the Bulldogs can adjust to whatever situation they face.

“Every game changes, so you never know when you’re going to need the short game to come in,” he said. “If they’ve got a guy on the bump that’s just mowing people down, and sometimes you’ve just got to lay things down and switch up the timing of everybody. So it’s important to be able to do it all. If you just hit the long ball all the time, at some point in time, you’re going to face a pitcher that you just can’t do that. So If you’re able to do the little things and the other things, then it can complete games when you need to.”  

Pitcher Cooper Faris got the win. He allowed 1 earned run off 5 hits and 3 walks and struck out four in 4 2/3 innings. Mason Watson took over and allowed 2 earned runs off 2 hits and a walk while striking out three.

“Eleven runs in an ending – it’s a good night,” Houston said. “I didn’t like how we didn’t come out the next inning and go shut it down. But that’s part of a long inning. Sometimes your pitcher isn’t able to go get loose again. They’re not used to sitting for that long.”

Still, there were many more positives. One is that Gateway pushed Burnet to continue to make defensive plays, something Houston believes will help as the Bulldogs get ready for another postseason run.

“For us, I think it’s extremely beneficial,” he said. “It’s a learning process. The most important thing is to go out and throw strikes. We didn’t do that, but if you can have a beginning and then go shut somebody down, it solves a lot of issues. And that’s something that we’ve just got to continue to get better at.”

Burnet travels to play at Gateway at 7 p.m. Friday, April 25, and welcomes Lago Vista at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 26, in the regular season finale.