A large reason for Belton’s midseason slump has been the offense, which had a combined four hits in its last two games.
The bats showed signs of getting back on track Friday night as Belton regrouped with its first victory over College Station A&M Consolidated in three years, 8-4 at Tiger Field.
“I can’t tell you how big of a win this is,” Belton coach David Tidwell said. “We worked so hard since we’ve been losing. We’ve been doing a lot of things and putting in a lot of hours. This is a tremendous win for us.
“To beat a quality team like that says something about these kids to get it going again.”
Belton improved to 18-3 overall and 4-2 in district play, while A&M Consolidated fell to 10-10, 3-2.
With Belton down 2-0, Kevin Thornton got the offense going in the first inning with a single off shortstop Wes Schill’s glove. Paul Wilson singled to right field, and after a throwing error by the right fielder Thornton scrambled home to trim the lead to 2-1.
In the second inning, Shane Hoelscher’s sacrifice fly brought in Cameron Arnett for a 2-2 tie. Thornton then doubled off the wall to score Brett Hernandez to give Belton a 3-2 lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Hernandez smacked a solo home run, his second homer of the year, in the fourth, and Thornton’s single drove in Hoelscher for a 5-2 lead.
Hernandez was hit by a pitch to drive in another run, Justin Dechert had an RBI single and Hoelscher drove in another run on a sacrifice fly in the sixth for an 8-2 advantage.
Belton finished with eight hits - Thornton went 3-for-4 - and six Belton players recorded a hit.
“It seemed like we put a little too much pressure on ourselves (in the previous two games),” Thornton said. “Finally, we just went out there and had fun with it and got it rolling.”
Added Tidwell: “We swung the bats a little better than we have been. I liked the timely hits we got. We still had some bonehead baserunning. Some have been struggling at the plate, but they’re finally getting out of it a little bit.”
Trailing 8-2 in the sixth, Consolidated started to take advantage of Belton’s tiring starter, Nick Wright.
After consecutive strikeouts, Wright allowed a single, hit a batter and walked in another for a run. An awkward bounce on a ground ball caused an error by shortstop Hoelscher to plate another run and trim the lead to 8-4.
Jacob Phillippe, who was expected to start today against Round Rock Westwood, replaced Wright (6-2) and got out of the jam.
“It wasn’t a great performance,” Tidwell said of Wright, who allowed three hits and struck out 11 while throwing 125 pitches. “He didn’t have command on a lot of pitches, but he kept us in the game. Once he settled down after the first inning, we got after it and scored some runs and made him relax a bit. I thought after that he settled down and pitched great.”
Phillippe loaded the bases again in the seventh but struck out Dillon Briers for the final out.
Consolidated stranded 11 runners, including leaving the bases loaded in the final two innings.
“That’s normal for us,” said Consolidated coach Chase Mann, formerly of Rosebud-Lott. “Mental mistakes and physical errors and not coming up with the big hit . . . that’s kind of been the norm and it’s frustrating.”
Despite Belton walking eight batters and committing three errors, the victory put the Tigers on a positive note heading into the second half of district. Belton plays at Westwood today at 1 p.m. and will return to district action on Friday against Harker Heights.
“Any time you get a win it’s always good,” Thornton said. “We’re flying high over here. We always have confidence."
cmeister@temple-telegram.com
