Friendswood takes out Watrip to advance to semifinals

May 25, 2010

FRIENDSWOOD — The Friendswood Mustangs took care of business with a 9-3 win over Houston Waltrip in the third game of their best-of-three series to advance to the Class 4A Region III semifinals.

Head coach Charlie Taylor and his diamondmen will face Port Neches-Groves in a best-of-three series beginning on Wednesday, May 26 at 7:30 p.m. Game 2 will be on Friday, May 28 at 7:30 p.m. and Game 3 (if necessary) will be on Saturday, May 29 at 2:00 p.m. All games are scheduled to be played at Baytown Sterling HS. The winner will advance to the 4A Region III championship and a ticket to the 4A state baseball tournament.

Friendswood won the series opener convincingly 10-1 and it appeared that the Mustangs would breeze their way past the Rams, but Waltrip had other ideas and took the second game 4-3 to force the third game showdown.

“You know we made a couple of errors and couldn’t lay down a bunt,” Taylor said. “That’s not how you win playoff games.”

In the third game, behind the pitching of Tyler Sullivan early, Friendswood was able to hold a 3-2 lead heading into the sixth inning. That's when the offense finally broke loose for the Mustangs.

With two on and one out, Jordan Gibbs hit a two-run double to give the Mustangs a three-run cushion 5-3. Kyle Singleton drove in a run on an infield single, and Michael Goodwin later added a two-out RBI-single. Connor Neuman and Goodwin later scored on a wild pitch to give Friendswood a commanding 9-2 lead.

Friendswood got on the board early with a solo home run by Matt Kennemer. Gibbs later got an RBI when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Tyler Goodwin also scored on a balk in the fifth.

Gibbs finished the game 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Michael Goodwin and Kennemer also had two hits each.

Sullivan had been strong on the mound after a shaky first inning. At one point he retired 12 of 13 batters and finished with four strikeouts in 42/3 innings. Singleton came on in relief and got the job done. He went 2 1/3 innings, allowing one run on one hit. He also had four strikeouts.

The Mustangs advance to the region semifinals for the third straight year and will face a strong PN-G team. Friendswood fans need to get out and support the Mustangs in their quest to win the region title and advance to state.

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