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This one was about validation - proof that Belton coach David Tidwell was right when he said all spring that this team could accomplish something, and proof that long hours spent fielding grounders and fly balls by the hundreds will pay off when it matters most.
Belton played a defensive gem and its pitching never wavered as the Tigers finished off the Pflugerville Panthers with a 4-2 victory Saturday afternoon in the finale of their Class 5A bi-district playoff series.
A perennial postseason participant with 18 playoff trips in 20 years, Belton (26-5) advanced to the second round for the first time since 2005 and will face No. 8-ranked Klein (23-4) in the area round later this week.
“This 5A Region II is brutal, and we hadn’t been in the second round in three years,” said Tidwell, whose teams advanced two rounds or deeper for nine consecutive years from 1997-2005. “It used to be routine for us. We used to go down to the third and fourth round.
“So being a young squad - we played six sophomores last night - this means a lot, especially to our seniors who know that any game could be their last.”
And it took a collection of efforts from players in a variety of classifications to extend the Tigers’ season.
Junior sidearm specialist Nick Wright kept it close by limiting the Panthers (18-15) to two runs and four hits through 4 1/3 innings.
Senior Jacob Phillipe (7-0) followed his three-hitter late Friday night in Game 2 with 2 2/3 hitless innings of relief. And sophomores Shane Hoelscher and Kevin Thornton made a pair of game-saving plays in the field.
“We throw our kids every day in practice,” Tidwell said. “We throw them somewhere between 8 and 12 minutes a day. We run them a lot and do a lot of weights and a lot of sit-ups with them, so their arms are good.
“I asked Jacob for just six outs. That’s all I wanted.”
Added Phillipe: “I felt really good today and was ready to go. I was just thinking about taking it one batter at a time, because I was excited and ready to get it over with.”
Seniors Cameron Arnett and Paul Wilson tied the game at 2-all in the fourth. Arnett tripled and came home on a single by Wilson, who moved up on base hits by Dillon Newman and Justin Dechert before scoring on a wild pitch.
Belton then started squandering chances, the first of which was leaving two runners in scoring position in the fourth. The Tigers also had two-on, one-out situations in the fifth and sixth innings and failed to score either time.
Their saving grace was their defense.
After a single and two hit batsmen loaded the bases and chased Wright with one out in the fifth, Phillipe induced a ground ball up the middle from Ryan Luckie.
Hoelscher charged left from his shortstop position, fielded the ball as his foot clipped the bag at second and fired to first as he stumbled to complete an inning-ending double play.
“They made all the plays today,” Pflugerville coach Don Fry said. “We hit some balls hard and they made the plays. They’re a good team. They’ve only lost five games for a reason.”
After Chris Hello reached base on catcher’s interference with one out in the sixth, the Panthers were stymied again - this time by Thornton.
The rangy center fielder dived to make a grass-top grab of Kenny Schmidt’s fly ball, then threw to Seth Alcozer to double up Hello at first.
“Once you’re in the playoffs, it’s defense that keeps you in it,” Thornton said. “Those plays got the ball rolling again.”
Added Tidwell: “Those defensive plays got our team more fired up than any base hit. When Shane and Kevin made those plays, that’s the most fired up I’ve seen our team in a long time. They were sky-high.”
And while Phillipe and Wright - who pitched two innings in a 16-7, nine-inning Game 1 home loss on Friday - proved durable enough to be effective again, Pflugerville’s recycled arms broke down.
In the top of the seventh, reliever John Michael Storey - who plunked four batters - hit Alcozer and Thornton with one away.
Next out of the bullpen came Kenneth Stockton. He yielded a ground ball that shortstop Greg Garcia booted to allow Arnett to reach and load the bases, then beaned Newman and walked Dechert to force across the final two runs.
“We didn’t pitch very well today,” Fry said. “And you can’t give them runs, because they’re not going to just give you any.”
Phillipe capped it in the seventh, working around a walk by getting Edward Esquivel on flyout to Thornton, Justin Riojas on liner that Newman snared on his knees at third, and Ryan Callahan on a grounder to second baseman Brett Hernandez.
“We did today what they did to us last night, and that was make great plays,” Tidwell said. “And I told the guys last night, ‘I don’t care where you win your two games, at the beginning, in between or at the last, you’ll still go to the next round.'"
edrennan@temple-telegram.com