Magnolia was in control all Tuesday night against Klein Forest. Just like Saturday, the Bulldogs sprinkled on some late runs to make it a lopsided win.
The Golden Eagles actually had the tying run at the plate in the top of the sixth before the Bulldogs’ defense and pitching kept them off the board. The Bulldogs then scored six times in the bottom of the inning for the 9-0 win.
Magnolia (13-6-1, 6-2), which entered the week tied for first with Tomball in District 15-6A, has won two straight since being swept by Klein Cain last week.
Bulldogs senior second baseman William Bates was a part of two clutch defensive plays when the game was still in reach for Klein Forest (3-16-1, 0-10). A 4-6-3 double play turned with senior shortstop Jordan Enyart secured two big outs. “That was tailor made right at me,” Bates said. “Just turning two.”
With a runner at third, reliever Braylon Hobbie got the strikeout to take the pressure off.
An inning earlier, Bates sprawled out to his right to stop a hard hit ball. He got to his feet and threw the runner out at first.
“It’s just a ball in play, I reacted and laid out,” Bates said. “I thought he was kind of quick, but I got up and made the play.”
Good defense can help inspire the bats. It was just that as the Bulldogs brought 12 runners to the plate and scored six runs. On Saturday, the Bulldogs scored five in the top of the seventh. Magnolia came in averaging 7.1 runs per game in its past six.
“They’re not a bad baseball team,” Chris Morris said. “Coach (Casey)Westmoreland has come in this year and he’s really got these guys playing well. They pitch well, they throw strikes and they stay down in the zone. We just kind of struggled with it early, but eventually we figured it out.”
Magnolia jumped up 2-0 in the bottom of the first as Enyart and Bates both scored runs off RBIs by Chase Lowery (double) and Ian Pugh sacrifice fly.
It was 2-0 until the bottom of the fourth when MJ Watson scored on an RBI double by Clyde Williams.
Consistency was has been key for Magnolia in comparison to the Klein Cain series. On Friday, Magnolia scored all four of its runs in the first two innings.
Lowery and Pugh added RBIs in the sixth, as did Bates and Jacob Hunter. Lowery also had a pair of RBIs Saturday against Klein Forest.
“It’s just been our bats,” Bates said. “Last series, we would get ahead and just kind of stop. We’d score in the first inning, score in the second and just stop. But I think we need to work on our approach. Just hit the ball up the middle and stay up the middle. We’re trying to pull too much, we’re trying to hit home runs.”
Senior Aiden Luscombe had another solid night on the mound. He went five innings in his first district start with five hits allowed. He struck out two and walked three.
“Aiden did well,” Morris said. “We asked him to go out there and he just threw strikes. He did that. He ate up innings for us. If you just throw strikes against a lot of high school teams, you get a lot of guys out. That’s what he did.”
Hobby went the final two innings with four strikeouts and four hits allowed.
Keegan Chavez had the big game Saturday at Klein Forest as he went 2-for-3 with a homer and a double.
Entering the week, five teams in District 15-6A had five wins while two others had four.
Clearly, Magnolia is in the mix But it’s too soon to look too far ahead.
“We keep up with it,” Morris said. “But as far as playoff standings and stuff like that, I don’t start thinking about that yet. We’re fixing to run into some really good teams in this district. We’ve got to fix a lot of things.”
Another big test is on the horizon with Klein Collins coming to town Friday and then the teams meet at Tigers’ home park next Tuesday.
“I feel like we played good early and we’re playing okay now,” Morris said. “I feel like we can play better than we’ve been playing. We’ve just got to get to work and get back to where we were at the plate. We’ve got some things to fix on defense and I think we’ll be fine.”
Magnolia senior Aiden Luscombe looks off a runner as senior first baseman Keegan Chavez awaits April 1, 2025 against Klein Forest. (Chris Zorzi/SportCast Media)
