The Wylie baseball team took care of business in both games on Friday to sweep Plainview in the best-of-three Region I-5A bi-district playoff series in Lamesa.
Behind a pair of strong pitching performances from Dash Albus and Brooks Gay, the Bulldogs (22-7) won 9-1 and 5-1.
In the opener, Albus went 6⅓ innings, allowing an unearned run on four hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Gay followed with a complete-game victory, giving up a run on five hits with a walk and five strikeouts. Grayson Bearden got the final two outs in Game 1.
While the pitchers were dealing, the offense got going. In Game 1, Balin Valentine and Jaxon Hansen had three hits each. Valentine hit a solo home run and scored three runs while Hansen had two RBIs and two runs scored. Landon Williams added two RBIs and Riley Hood scored twice in the 9-1 victory.
It took a little longer for the offense to come in Game 2. Wylie took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on a Reed Hughes RBI single. But Plainview answered in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game.
With the game tied 1-1 in the seventh, Wylie scored four runs in the final inning and held on to win.
Hood scored on an error and Hansen drove J.T. Thompson home. Garrett Graham then delivered an RBI triple and Williams capped it off with a sacrifice fly.
Gay got into a little bit of trouble in the seventh, with runners on first and third with one out, but a Thompson to Valentine to Hood double play ended the threat and the game.
Wylie will face the winner of the El Paso Andress and Del Valle bi-district series in the area round. The series is tied 1-1 heading into Saturday’s Game 3.
This story will be updated.
Jordan Hofeditz covers Abilene high schools and colleges, Big Country schools and other local sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jhofeditz. If you appreciate locally drive news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.
