Yoemen sweep Elkhart, set for Troy in area round
The Cameron Yoemen swept the Elkhart Elks in the bi-district round of the playoffs to advance to the area round against the Troy Trojans last week.
The Yoemen were set to begin their series with Troy in the area round on Wednesday night in Salado. The results were not available at press time.
Game 2 will be on Friday, May 13, at 6 p.m., and if needed, game 3 will start 30 minutes after game 2. All games will be played at Salado High School.
Game 1 of the series with Elkhart was played on Friday in Cameron, where the Yoemen defeated the Elks 12-2 in a game that ended in six innings due to the 10-run rule. The Yoemen opened up the scoring in the first inning, when a wild pitch by Elkhart allowed Tracer Lopez to come home and score one run for Cameron.
Cameron tallied five more runs in the second inning jumping out to a 6-0 lead. The Yoemen offense in the second inning was led by Armando Reyes, Tracer Lopez, Landon Greene, and Dillan Akin, who each had clutch RBIs in the inning. Cameron increased their lead to 8-0 in the third inning that was aided by a two run single by Ryan Host on a hard hit ground ball to right field.
“Our guys after the first time through got a little bit comfortable, and weren’t so antsy at it,” Coach Hector Delgadillo said. “We just stayed back and stopped trying to pull the ball and kill it. We were just trying to focus on driving the ball right back up the middle, and that’s what we got to do when we get to the plate. I think we produced a lot of good ABs so that helped us a lot.”
The Elks finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the sixth inning with a two-run triple to make the score 8-2. However, Cameron responded in the bottom of the sixth inning with four runs of their own to end the game 12-2 in six innings. The runs came off a double by Akin, a single by Reyes, a score on a wild pitch from Kason Goolsby, and on a throwing error from the Elkhart catcher.
Cameron scattered 11 total hits in the game. Lopez, Host, and Reyes all had multiple hits for the Yoemen. The Cameron defense was sure-handed as they didn’t commit a single error on the field.
“We talked about that, and pitching and defense is what we do best,” Delgadillo said. “That’s what’s going to get us ball games, so if we can continue to do that, that’s great. Our guys were talking, they were up, and they were ready to go. The defense was solid.”
Brannon McCall was the winning pitcher for Cameron. He surrendered just two runs on three hits over six innings, striking out four.
“He had his off-speed going for him tonight, not so much his fastball,” Delgadillo said. “He lost it at times, so we just had to find what worked and it was his off-speed all night. That definitely helped a lot.”
The Yoemen faced the Elks for game 2 at Elkhart on Saturday.
“One of our players said it earlier, Carlos Bolivar, he said let’s bring the same energy we did today tomorrow,” Delgadillo said. “We got a long trip ahead of us, hopefully the kids get well rested tonight, and once we get there, we can make that happen. I think the kids know and understand that they’re going to throw their number 1 (pitcher) tomorrow, so we just got to play that game with the same energy we did tonight.”
Cameron brought that same energy and defeated Elkhart 10-5 to complete the sweep. Cameron got on the scoreboard in the first inning when Landon Greene grounded out, allowing Tracer Lopez to come home and score one run. The Elks tied the game at one in the second inning by scoring on a wild pitch, then took a 2-1 lead in the third inning on an RBI groundout. After Cameron scored two runs in the top of the sixth inning, Elkhart answered with two of their own in the bottom of the sixth inning to make the score 4-3 Elkhart. The sixth inning scores came when the Yoemen scored on two sacrifice flies, one by Landon Greene and another by Marino Cardona. Elkhart then answered a double a to left field, scoring one run and a single on a ground ball to left field, scoring the other run. The Yoemen then tied the game at 4 in the top of the seventh inning with an RBI bunt single by Sanchez. Cameron would take the lead for good when Armando Reyes hit a sacrifice fly to plate one run and take the 5-4 lead. They went on to collect five more runs to take a commanding 10-4 lead.
The big seventh inning came from a sacrifice fly by Dillan Akin, a throwing error by Elkhart, and singles from Host, Cardona, and Lopez. The Elks scored one run in the bottom of the seventh inning on an RBI groundout, but that would be all as Cameron won 10-5 and sealed the series. Cameron collected eight hits in the game. Lopez and Cardona both had multiple hits for the Yoemen. Cameron tore up the base paths with 10 stolen bases. Three players stole at least two bases, Lopez led the way with four. Greene started the game on the mound for Cameron. He went five and two-thirds innings, allowing four runs on five hits, striking out four and walking one. Tracer Lopez got the win for Cameron. He lasted one and one-third innings, allowing two hits and one run while striking out one and walking zero.