Goats complete Non-District Baseball with two game win streak By Byron "Putt" Riddle - The Groesbeck Goats followed up their win over Blooming Grove last Friday with a home game win over the Venus Bulldogs from District 8-AAA, a 12-2 win that gave them a 6-10 season record heading into district play. The Bulldogs came to town with a 6-6 season mark. Cade Wilson went the distance on the mound for the Goats. He pitched five innings striking out one, walking two, hitting one batter and giving up five hits. In their best showing of the season, the Goats had only one error. They turned two double plays. Wilson had one of them when he back-pedaled to catch Edward Garcia’s bunt pop that looked as if it was going to drop in behind the mound for a hit. The batter before Garcia, Leo Rogers, had gotten on safely with a single to center field leading off the top of the fourth inning. Rogers was so certain that Garcia’s pop bunt was going to be good that he broke for second to avoid the force. Wilson went over backwards in stretching for the ball, but caught it and came up to his knees to throw out Rogers before he could scoot back to first. Older brother Cody Wilson had already set the trend for double plays in the first inning when he fielded Frankie Gomez’s grounder back to him at shortstop, stepped on second to force out Randy Brittain who had opened the inning reaching first on a walk, and then threw out Gomez with his throw to Ryan Fewell at first base. The next batter , Edward Garcia singled into center field to get the Bulldogs their second runner on base in the inning. But Zach Haynie easily caught Garrett Waddlington’s fly ball to center field to erase the Venus threat. That was the only fly ball that was hit to him as he was the Goat version of a Venus fly trap and the Bulldog batters put nothing else in the air toward him the rest of the game. The Bulldogs came back in the bottom of the first and pulled off their own triple play that ended the inning with the first three Groesbeck batters being put out. Haynie had singled to left-center field for the Goats opening hit. Then he stole second base. Pat Kilman was walked. Leighton Rush came up to bat and hit a hard smash in the air back toward first baseman Wadlington. Wadlington caught it somehow and stepped on first to get Kilman out before he could get back to first. Then he threw to shortstop Leo Rogers at second to easily force out Haynie who had thought that Rush’s hit was going into right field instead of Wadlington’s glove and had taken off for third base. The other factor beside playing their best defensive game of the year that aided the Goats’ win was their bats coming alive. They recorded a season-high 16 hits in this game. Standing out as the hit parade leader was sophomore Chris Favors. The left fielder for the Goats drove in seven runs on three hits, a perfect night at the plate for him. He singled in the second inning to right field and drove in Cody Wilson, Fewell, and Nick Walker all of whom had gotten on base via single, single, and a walk respectively. In the third inning, he doubled in Walker and Charley Curry. Walker had beat out the throw to first from Bulldog pitcher Rogers who couldn’t get to his pop hit out to the mound. Curry followed with a single to center field setting the stage for Favors’ base-clearing blast. Not done yet, he came up in the fifth with Walker and Curry on base again. Walker was safe on a fielders choice to short who tagged out Corey Cortines off second base. The Goat designated hitter had opened the inning with a double to left field. Curry was hit by the pitcher to get on base. Favors’ hit to center field was a clean single that ended up with him getting to third base when the Bulldog center fielder Brittain mishandled the ball after he picked it up in deep center field. Also going three for three batting was Cody Wilson with two singles and a double. His double to left field looked as if it was going to be the first Goat homerun out of the park this year as it carried all the way to the wall.Hitting two. for three was Kilman. Going two for two was Walker. Fewell and Haynie were two for four. Cortines was one for two, his double. Curry was also one for two for the Goats. Scoring for the Goats were Haynie once, Kilman once, Rush once, Cody Wilson twice, Fewell once, Walker three times, Curry twice and Favors once. Lady Goats Split District Games By DONTE ASBERRY Last Tuesday night the Groesbeck Lady Goat softball team opened 18-3A action with a 10-0 drubbing of Fairfield. Kayla Masters went 3 for 3 and had 3 rbi's to lead Groesbeck while twin sister Kristin went 2 for 3 in the box. Shana Watson recorded 9 strikeouts. Thursday, March 24, Groesbeck traveled to Madisonville and ended up on the short end of an 8-3 decision. Lady Goat Lauren Drummond popped a homerun in the game. Groesbeck 1-1 in district, played in Bryan earlier this week in non-district action but will host Marlin this Friday at 6:00 p.m. in 18-3A action. Varsity Results From Bulldog Relays By DONTE ASBERRY Varsity Boys: Shot put - Kendrick Burns, 1st, 43-6 High jump - Ryan Fewell, T3rd, 5-10; James Edwards, T3rd, 5-10 110 Hurdles - Dillon McLean, 5th, 16.67 100 meter run - James Edwards, 2nd, 11.10 200 meter run - Edwards, 5th, 22.50 Varsity Girls: Shot put - Lauren Keeton, 3rd, 30 1/2 Discus - Keeton, 1st, 108-1 High jump - Tanzsy Jackson, 1st, 5-0 Sprint relay - 1.Hearne, 50.25, 2.Rosebud-Lott, 50.79, 3.LaVega, 51.03, 4.Gatesville, 51.24, 5.Connally, 52.38, Groesbeck 52-61 100 meter run - Edwina Wiley, 6th, 13.11 1600 meter run - Jaimye Allen, 3rd, 5:51.97 This is an on-line publication of Groesbeck Journal P.O. Box 440 Groesbeck, TX 76642-0440 254-729-5103 For comments or questions, email Publisher: Thomas Hawkins thawkins@groesbeckjournal.com The Web Site contains material which is protected by international copyright and trademark laws. No material may be copied, reproduced, republished, broadcast or distributed in any way or decompiled, except that you may download one copy of the Materials on any single computer for your personal, non-commercial home use only, provided you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices. On-line publication, Copyright 2000, Groesbeck Journal. Web page design, Copyright 2000, EZ Edit Web Publishing.