Apr. 13—GODLEY — In a game where Godley managed only one base hit on the night, which came on a bunt, the Wildcats excelled in other areas and put enough pressure on Alvarado to record a huge 5-1 win over the Indians on Tuesday night.
With Godley’s win over Alvarado, the Wildcats certainly made things interesting in District 11-4A and also kept their district title hopes alive.
Godley entered Tuesday’s game with a 2-2 record in league play, two games behind first-place Alvarado, which entered 4-0. But with Tuesday’s win, the Wildcats are now just one game behind Alvarado (4-1) and Waxahachie Life (4-1) for first place with three games to go.
“It was a big win,” Godley Coach Brent Lewis said. “Early in district starting off the way we did, we said we’ve just got to put the blinders on and go back to work and control what we can control. We did that [Tuesday] night by just battling with a very good Alvarado team. It was a big one. Now, we’ve just got to keep the blinders on, we’ve got Venus on Friday and that’s all we can worry about.”
While Godley recorded only one base hit, the Wildcats did show patience at the plate by drawing seven walks and being aggressive in timely situations to plate five runs.
With Godley’s offense piecing together runs, senior pitcher Hunter Lewis and the Wildcat defense did enough to hold the Indians down.
Lewis pitched all seven innings, needing just 80 pitches to record the complete-game effort. He allowed four hits, one run and two walks with three strikeouts.
“That’s why you call him an ace,” Brent Lewis said. “Hunter’s our ace, he’s our dude. If we need a win, we go to Hunter. He didn’t have many strikeouts but we had two big huge double plays to get out of jams. And Hunter just battled. Kole Allen played awesome at shortstop and Isaiah Ponce at third base. We know if we can throw strikes and play good defense, we’re going to have a chance to win. And Hunter gives us that chance every single time.”
The Wildcats held a 2-0 lead through five innings of play, with both of their runs coming off Alvarado miscues. In the third inning, Godley’s Isacc Paniagua and Peyton Thomas drew walks before the Indians issued an intentional walk to Landry McKittrick to load the bases with two outs. Owen Roever made it 1-0 with a bases-loaded walk, the fourth of the inning. Then with two outs in the fourth inning, an Alvarado error on an infield pop-up allowed Tate Grimsley to score from second base for a 2-0 lead.
In the top of the sixth inning, the Indians cut the deficit in half on an RBI single by Ricardo Duran to score Kaden Stevens, who hit a leadoff double. But a double play to end the inning kept the score 2-1.
In the home half of the sixth inning, the Wildcats loaded the bases, again taking advantage of Alvarado mistakes. Grimsley reached on a dropped third strike then Collin Workman got on base via a hit-by-pitch. Paniagua bunted for a single to load the bases with no outs. Sacrifice flies by Kole Allen and Thomas gave Godley a 5-1 lead.
In the top of the seventh, Lewis worked a drama-free 1-2-3 inning to finish off the complete-game outing.
Allen was 0-for-2 with one RBI and Paniagua went 1-for-2 with a walk and two runs to lead the Wildcats.
The Wildcats lost their first meeting vs. Alvarado in a 2-1 walk-off defeat on March 25 to open district. But Brent Lewis said they entered Tuesday’s game just focused on getting a needed win as opposed to beating a rival or avenging an earlier loss.
“We just needed a win, to be honest,” he said. “We needed to come out, play well, throw strikes, play good defense and do the little things right. Even though we only got one hit, we got our jobs done. That was the biggest thing. It wasn’t a revenge thing. It wasn’t them vs. us. It was, we need a win and we need to play well to keep this train rolling a little bit.”
While Godley is one win or one Venus loss away from clinching a playoff berth, Brent Lewis said moving forward the Wildcats will need to get a little more out of their offense to make a run in the playoffs.
“We’ve got to hit the ball better,” he said. “Our pitching and defense is keeping us in games. No matter who’s on the mound or who’s playing what position, we’re in ball games because of our pitching and defense. We just need to hit the ball better and we’ll really have a chance to win every game we play. We need to have good approaches at the plate, relax, be focused and do our job.”
The Wildcats are scheduled to visit Venus at 7 p.m. Friday before facing off against Joshua at 11 a.m. Saturday at The Depot in Cleburne. Alvarado is scheduled to play Castleberry at 1:30 p.m. Friday in a non-district outing before resuming district play Tuesday vs. Venus.