The Aubrey Chaparrals varsity baseball team capped off their regular season with a strong showing in an 8-0 win over the Ranchview Wolves on Friday night.
The Chaps bounced back from recent losses against Panther Creek, 10-1, and Richland, 10-3, using a combination of sharp pitching and strong offense to take control of the matchup early and keep the Wolves at bay for the entirety of the game.
“That was a good way to get back on the winning side of things,” Aubrey head baseball coach Nathan Henry said. “We had two there in a row, where we played uncharacteristically for us, but the kids did a good job early on tonight, putting us in good position. We’re already in the playoffs, but it’s good to get into the playoffs with a win under our belt, and now we can turn our attention to the first round.”
Aubrey took advantage of an error by Ranchview’s second baseman to score the game’s first run, followed by a single by Ayden Bass that drove in two runs to jump out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
The Chaps added two more runs in the second and third innings on a sacrifice fly from Luke Hellman, and Dane Buck scoring on a passed ball, extending Aubrey’s lead to 5-0.
Aubrey added two more runs in the fourth inning and picked up their eighth and final run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
The Chaps used four pitchers—Keriel Torres, Jackson Polen, Buck and Hellman—to get the win, with the quartet combining for 14 strikeouts and surrendering 2 hits and no runs.
Torres led the bunch with 7 strikeouts in four innings on the mound.
Aubrey collected 8 hits in the batter’s box, led by Bass, who went two for three at the plate with 2 RBIs.
Chaps’ senior catcher Diego Tagliaferro highlighted the importance of the victory as Aubrey prepares for postseason play.
“This win was really big for us,” he said. “A lot of people may not see it this way, but losing to Richland earlier this week probably hurt us mentally, so as much as this win was expected, it was a big way to get us momentum going into the playoffs.”
He added that the team also has a personal reason to keep winning, with Chaps hoping to help their head coach, Henry, capture his 200th career win.
“It’s been on our minds since we found out, and we have a whiteboard in our locker room where we keep track of every single win,” Tagliaferro said. “I feel like that keeps us grounded as a team and gives us a why when sometimes we can’t find one. We’ll talk about it and say, “We have to do it for Coach Henry, the team and the pride we have in wearing this jersey.”
Aubrey was scheduled to open the playoffs against the Van Alstyne Panthers in a bestof- three series hosted at Al Alford Field in McKinney, with Game 1 scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Game 2 was scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, with Game 3, if necessary, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday.
The results were not available by press time.
