Sophomore Dylan Barbiaux drove in three runs with an infield single and a triple and Alec Wade pitched a shutout to lead Granger to a 5-0 victory over Fayetteville in the opening game of their Class A Region IV quarterfinal baseball series on Thursday night.
“A lot of infield hits, and I don’t know if I would have called a lot of those hits,” said a very relieved Granger coach Stephen Wisdom, whose Lions are in the third round for the first time in program history.
“I don’t know how I feel right now. I know we can hit better than we showed tonight and I like our pitching. If we can come out and show (good hitting today), I like our chances.”
Game 2 is at 5 p.m. today at Bastrop, and Game 3 will follow 30 minutes later if needed.
Of Granger’s 11 hits, four were infield singles and a couple were bloopers. But none was more important than Barbiaux’s first.
With the game scoreless in the third, Granger (20-8) had two outs, OJ Gonzales on third base and Shane Newsome on first with cleanup hitter Barbiaux at the plate.
Barbiaux took a 1-2 curveball from Fayetteville’s Aaron Keiler and hit it right back up the middle.
The ball ricocheted off Keiler’s glove and was fielded by second baseman John Minarcik, who fired to first. But Barbiaux slid in safely on a close play, driving in the first run.
“That was a really big play,” said Barbiaux, Granger’s sophomore shortstop. “It shouldn’t have been an error. I mean, he should have gotten me out but I dove headfirst and got in.”
Fayetteville coach Clint Jaeger questioned the call, if for no other reason than it was about to give Granger some momentum in what up until then had been a great pitching duel between Wade and Keilers.
“We almost had them out of the inning. It was a bang-bang play that could have gone either way,” Jaeger said. “But it was a good call. It got the first run in and it all just snowballed from there. Once they got that run they got the momentum and had all the energy of the game.”
Added Wisdom: “I probably would have questioned it, too. But Dylan just outhustled the play. Our kids get pretty focused up there with two strikes or two outs. They just put the ball in play. They may not hit it off the wall, but they put it in play and make things happen.”
Chaston Kubacak, who was 2-for-2 with a walk, followed with a single to center to make it 2-0.
In the next inning with Granger already having plated one run, Barbiaux showed he isn’t just about the infield shots. He again came to the plate with two outs and runners on the corners. And this time he delivered a solid shot down the right-field line for a bases-clearing triple, giving Granger a 5-0 lead.
“I’ve had one in the last two games so I have a three-game triple streak going,” he said. “But I just try to come out and get base hits and do whatever Coach wants me to do.”
Wisdom hinted that because Barbiaux is one of Granger’s younger, smaller players, he might catch teams a little off-guard.
“He’s the smallest kid we have in our lineup,” Wisdom said. “Everybody is like, ‘Cleanup hitter, huh?’ But that’s what he’s been doing for us all year. He’s real special for us.”
The performance at the plate preserved a solid performance by ace Wade, who allowed six hits in seven innings.
He was helped along the way by solid defense, including a huge play in the fifth with Granger trying to keep the 5-0 lead.
Fayetteville (17-9) had the bases loaded and two outs, and cleanup hitter Ryan Bertsch hit a solid shot to first. First baseman Kubacak couldn’t field it and the ball rolled to his right. It looked like it would end the shutout, but Kubacak kept his focus by going to field the ball and then fired a strike to Wade, who beat Bertsch to the bag by half a step.
Fayetteville never came close to scoring the rest of the way.
“They put it to us as far as outhustling and outthinking us today,” Jaeger said. “They were better than us tonight. But our guys have been in this situation before, down to good teams, and I told them it’s a whole new day tomorrow. One game doesn’t kill you."
mhood@temple-telegram.com
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