BASEBALL Stratford 5-Magnolia 4 The 19 5A District Leading Magnolia Bulldogs visited the backyard only to return back home with a loss to your Spartan

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1 BASEBALL Stratford 5-Magnolia 4 The 19 5A District Leading Magnolia Bulldogs visited the backyard only to return back home with a loss to your Spartans! Tracy Warren got the nod on the mound for the Spartans with Caston Peter receiving his pitches behind the plate. The Bulldog batters were disposed of quickly in the 1 st, and the Spartans came to the plate. A double by Warren and a single by Kyle Donaho got the Spartans on the board scoring Jake Sloan running for the Warren. 1-zip Spartans. The top of the 2 nd saw the same result as the 1st for the visitors from Magnolia and the Spartan bats stayed hot. Larry Coston singles followed up by Jared Willis but they were left hanging. In the 3 rd the Bulldog bats got busy with a double followed by a left center field homer by Magnolia. The score after 3 was 2-1 Magnolia. In the 4 th Austin "Woody" Wood came on in a relief role for Warren. A base hit followed by an error made the score 3-1 Magnolia. In the bottom half of the inning your Spartans were stifled leaving a couple of base runners stranded. The score remained 3-1 through the 5 th but things began happening in the 6 th. Connor Hannigan reached on a dropped 3 rd strike with Christian Bates singling right behind him. Larry Coston then followed up with a single scoring Hannigan and Bates rounded 3 rd and scored on an errant throw. The score after six was all tied up at 3's. Then things got really exciting! Zach Levandoski came in as relief for Wood who pitched fantastic!...levandoski quickly struck out the first batter. With 1 out, one of Magnolias best hitters came up and took Levandoski deep in the count, and ultimately won that battle taking him deep over the left center field fence with a dinger. Undeterred and with some careful words of encouragement from Catcher, Caston Peter, Levandoski got out of the inning by throwing low strikes and getting great support from that amazing trio of infielders, Davis to Warren to Donaho who turned 2 on the Bulldogs (a double play). Score 4-3 going to the bottom of the 7 th. Kyle Davis led off the offensive response with a single, Tracy Warren now playing shortstop singles moving Davis to 3 rd. Davis then scored on an error on the 3 rd baseman hit by Kyle Donaho (Speedster, Jake Sloan comes in to run for Donaho). Caston Peter is walked intentionally and the Spartans have bases loaded with no outs. DH, Connor Hannigan then delivers a hard hit drive to short that the Bulldog's Shortstop mishandles and that scores Jake Sloan giving your Spartans a hard fought victory over a very strong Magnolia High School Team.

2 Zach Levandoski receives the win for his effort with the help of some great defense, and the Spartans are now 6-3 in District play (13-8 overall) in what now looks to be a 3-way tie with Brenham and Magnolia for 2 nd place. Stratford Spartans 1- Magnolia West Mustangs 0 The Mustangs of Magnolia West High School came calling on Friday 4/1. Tracy Warren began the game delivering heat from the mound. In typical fashion Tracy was commanding from the bump giving the Mustangs little to work with. In the 1 st. Mag-West began with a leadoff single and as it turned out that single which eventually came home in the inning, was all that the Mustangs needed to send the Spartans home in defeat on this Friday as the Spartan Offense could generate little in response. The upshot is this, the Spartan "D" allowed only 5 hits to the Mustangs, but in contrast were only allowed 3 hits by the Mustang's pitching and defense. The guys need to bounce back as the travel to Ridge Point High School in a non-district "double-header" following on Saturday. Spartans 6 vs. Ridge Point Panthers 7 The Spartans had their hands full on April 2 with a capable Ridge Point Panther Squad. J.P. McGinty gets the starting nod for the Spartans with Connor Hannigan receiving his pitches behind the plate. Inning one passed without incident with the score zeros for both teams. In the 2 nd the Spartans got 1 run after a walk to Allen Winter, a sac-fly by Keagan Lawrence and eventually a wild pitch brought Winter home. The Panthers came back scoring 4 in the 2 nd and the score after 2 innings of play was 4-1 Ridge Point. In the 3 rd the Spartan bats began heating up. Austin Wood ripped a single, with Connor Hannigan doubling right behind Woody scoring him. A triple by John Marrow scored Hannigan making the score 4-3. A passed ball scored Marrow making the score 4-4. But the Spartans weren't done yet. Keagan Lawrence lined a single into left field and immediately stole 2 nd. The score after 2 and a half was 5-4 Spartans. Zach Levandoski comes in to pitch relieving JP McGinty and shuts the Panthers down with 2 strikeouts, and fielding a ball hit back to the mound nipping the runner at first. Still 5-4 Spartans. The 4 th saw no further offensive production from the Spartans and the Panthers came up in the bottom half and Levandoski and the Spartan Defense quickly disposed of the Panther batters.

3 The 5 th inning for the Spartans saw a double by Allen Winter but he was left stranded on the bases. The panthers went ahead 6-5 in this inning as Levandoski had a bit of difficulty with back to back walks, a perfectly laid down bunt between 3 rd and the mound and a hit batter scores 1. A sac-fly scores another, and the score after 5 was 6-5 Panthers. In the top of the 6 th, a walk to Jake Sloan and a subsequent fielder's choice and an error scored Sloan. 6-6 in the middle of the inning. The Panthers got a leadoff single and Larry Coston came in relieving Levandoski. The score after 6 was still 6-6. No more offense by either team kept the score 6-6 through 7 and the game went to extra innings. The Panthers finally pulled out a win over your Spartans in this one after a single, and a couple of sacrifice fly balls scores 1 in the bottom of the 8 th sealing the victory for Ridge Point. Stratford 8-Ridge Point 7 Game 2 against the Panthers got off to a rousing start! A base hit by Jared Willis followed by a double from Tracy Warren scores Willis. The Panthers also got one in the inning and the score after one inning of play was 1-1. In the 2 nd, Michael Milstead walks, Connor Hannigan walks, Christian Bates reaches on a fielder's choice (Milstead thrown out at 3 rd ), Larry Coston walks, a walk to Jared Willis scores Hannigan, Kyle Davis continued his hot hitting and singled to score Bates. End of 2 with the score 3-1 Spartans. Nothing of note happened in the 3 rd and top of the 4 th, but the Panthers strung together a walk a double a bunt the score was 4-3 Ridge Point after 4. Ridge Point got another 2 in the 5 th making the score 6-3. In the top of the 6 th the Spartans got 2 back. Connor Hannigan singles but then gets thrown out at 2 nd on a fielder's choice by Christian Bates. Larry Coston singles moving Bates to 2 nd. Jared Willis doubles and scores Bates and Coston. The Panthers answered back with offense of their own and Nathen Goldman comes on in relief of Austin Wood who came in, in relief for Allen Winter who left because of an injury. Score at the end of 6 was 7-5 Panthers. In the 7 th the Spartans added some runs in the form of a double by Tracy Warren, a single by Kyle Donaho, Caston Peter is hit by a pitch the bases are loaded. Milstead sacrifices and Warren scores, Connor Hannigan singles scoring Donaho after an exciting squeeze bunt that also scored 1. Christian Bates also singled in the inning. Score now is Stratford 8, Ridge Point 7.

4 Ridge Point was unable to generate any offense in the bottom of the inning as Nathan Goldman and the Spartan Defense shut down the Panthers preserving the lead and giving Goldman the victory over a stubborn Ridge Point Panther team. Stratford Spartans 6 vs Waller 2 Tracy Warren went 1-1, helping the Stratford Spartans Varsity to a 6-2 victory over Waller on Tuesday at Waller HS. He doubled in the third inning. Michael Milstead got the win for the Stratford Spartans Varsity thanks to six strikeouts. Milstead allowed one earned run, five hits and one walk over seven innings. Wesley Geigley ended up on the wrong side of the pitching decision, charged with the loss. He lasted just 2 2/3 innings, walked three, struck out one, and allowed three runs. The Stratford Spartans Varsity never trailed after scoring three runs in the third on an RBI double by Warren. Two runs in the bottom of the seventh helped Waller close its deficit to 6-2. Stratford JV 4 -Waller 1 Spartans JV took on the Waller Bulldogs Monday night at the backyard. The Bulldogs picked up a run in the second on a hit by pitch and a single. The Spartans came back with two runs in the third inning on a Cullen Hannigan walk, a single from Jack Flynn and ground balls from Luis Rodriguez and Sam Gwinn to go up 2-1. In the bottom of the fourth the Spartans picked up another run on an A.J. Myers single. Myers made his way around the based on a series of ground balls from Brandon Reichle and Cole Smeraldi and a passed ball to go up 3-1. The Spartans picked up another run in the fifth inning on a triple by Flynn who was then driven in on a line single to left field by Gwinn. Hannigan was solid behind the plate throwing out a runner at third. Parker Jensen came on in relief baffling the Bulldogs with a wicked curve, striking out four batters in two innings. Stratford JV 4- Magnolia 3 The Spartans traveled to Magnolia on a beautiful Friday night to take on the Bulldogs in a rubber match having lost in Brenham and won at the Backyard earlier in the season. Brad Perkins was on the bump and held Magnolia scoreless through 4 innings. The Spartans picked up a run in the first on Blake Stroube's RBI driving in Jack Flynn. The two combined again in the third for another run with Stroube driving in Flynn on a hard hit ground ball to make it 2-0.

5 Kade Klein had an RBI single in the fifth to put the Spartans up 3-0 but the Bulldogs picked up three runs in the fifth on a series of improbable plays to make it 3-3. In the bottom of the sixth Thompson Green walked and was driven in by a double by Flynn to put the Spartans up 4-3. Sam Gwinn came on in the fifth to seal the deal striking out four and giving up one hit. Nicholas Montalbano had three hits in the game, Stroube two RBIs and Cullen Hannigan had a nice putout sliding on the cinders behind home plate and another catching an attempted steal at second. Stratford Sophomores 6 vs Waller 3 On Monday 4/4, Brady Putnik started and got the win, throwing 5 innings, allowing 2 earned runs. Bart Jones came in relief to throw a scoreless 6 th inning. David Flajnik led the way offensively with 2 RBI's. Thomas Satterwhite and Ryan Tamez both made their mark defensively. Each made excellent plays in the field. The Sophomores improved to 6-1 in district play, winners of 6 straight.