Battle of the Backbone ends in a split series

The Battle of the Backbone ended in a split series as rivals Wimberley and Canyon Lake clashed to add another chapter in their short history with the Hawks winning Game 1 at 11-10 and the Texans taking Game 2 at 4-3.

The split series has Wimberley and Canyon Lake tied for second place in district along with Davenport and Fredericksburg while Boerne takes sole possession of first place and Bandera in sixth place.

For Head Baseball Coach Stephen Wisdom, the ability to not let errors and other mistakes affect the team’s performance was a huge step for the team even though the Texans need to work on eliminating those mistakes.

“We’ve got to fix some of the mistakes,” Wisdom said. “I’m glad that we are putting them behind and carrying it to the next play. That’s huge and it shows maturity. We just have to take those (errors) away. We wanted to get some hits tonight (Friday) and we got the hits. We had eight hits to two against Canyon Lake, but we couldn’t put anything together when we had guys in scoring position.”

After a scoreless first two innings in Game 2, Canyon Lake took the first lead of the game as the base runner scored from third following a Wimberley passed ball. The Hawks added on to the lead as a two-out triple scored the runner from second to add on to the lead at 2-0.

Wimberley staved off another Canyon Lake score as starting pitcher Ruger Riojas struckout the last batter to keep the Hawks off the board and end the inning.

The lead didn’t last long however as the Texans soon cut the lead down to one following a Lane Patek triple to score Josh Prado from second base to make it 2-1.

Ethan Lancaster was able to score Patek as a groundout allowed him to score from third and tie the game up at 2-2.

Both Canyon Lake and Wimberley remained scoreless through the fourth and fifth innings as both teams desperately tried to take the lead but to no avail.

In the top of the sixth inning, Canyon Lake was able to put on two base runners with just one out. But two consecutive strikeouts by Riojas ended the inning as the game remained tied at 2-2.

After Canyon Lake walked Kyler Lai, who was replaced by Landon Gary as the courtesy runner for the catcher, the Texans were in prime scoring position as Gary advanced to second base following a wild pitch with one out.

Will Norris hit a line drive to center field that was ultimately dropped by the Hawks allowed Gary to score as the Texans took their first lead of the game at 3-2.

As Canyon Lake ended the Texans at-bat with a double play, the Hawks needed one run to tie the game and two runs to retake the lead in the top of the 7th inning.

Canyon Lake was on the ropes immediately after Wimberley got two outs in the inning putting the Hawks in a desperate situation.

However, the Hawks put themselves in position to tie and retake the lead as a walk and a dropped third strike allowed the runner to be safe as Canyon Lake put the tying and winning run on second and third.

But the Texans persevered as a popup towards second baseman Patek was caught and the Texans came away with the big 4-3 lead.

Riojas finished the game throwing all seven innings while allowing just four hits, two runs, and throwing 13 strikeouts.

The win followed a heartbreaking loss to Canyon Lake in Game 1, which saw Wimberley’s comeback fall short in a 11-10 loss for the Texans.

Despite trailing the Hawks 9-2 after the third inning, the Texans outscored Canyon Lake 8-2 in the final four innings but ultimately came up short in the 7th inning as the Hawks escaped with the win.

The Texans also scored another victory last week as Wimberley defeated Pflugerville on a walkoff sacrifice bunt to defeat the Panthers 10-9 on Saturday.

Wimberley returns to district play this week for a two game series against Bandera. Game 1 will be at home Tuesday night while Game 2 will be at Bandera Friday night with both games starting at 7 p.m.