By Robert Morgan | Published Thursday, May 14, 2009
The Decatur High School baseball team picked up where it left off two weeks ago when it defeated Bridgeport and Vernon within 24 hours to win the District 5-3A championship.
The Eagles continued their winning ways against another district champion when they made the long trip to Celina. Despite chalking up four errors and stranding almost a dozen base runners, Decatur needed three extra outs to beat the Bobcats 3-2 in eight innings in a playoff warmup.
Brennan Moore jumped all over a fast ball in the top of the eighth inning for a one-out, solo home run to give the Eagles a 3-2 lead. Celina doubled in the bottom half of the inning, but pitcher Andrew Gage picked up a pair of strikeouts to get out of the inning and win the game.
Decatur, which out-hit Celina 11-3, needed just one plate appearance to take the first lead of the night. Moore smacked a lead-off single to center field, moved to second on a single by Justin Tompkins and advanced to third on a passed ball.
The Eagles took a 1-0 lead when Chad Harrison crushed a two-out double to the wall that easily scored Moore. Gage struck out, and DHS left two runners on base.
Tompkins got the call on the mound where he shut out Celina through two innings. The Bobcats got a double in the third inning and took advantage of two errors to get the runner home and tie things up at 1-1.
Decatur did not let things remain that way for long as it got a pair of hits in the fourth inning to move back in front. Tompkins led off with a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Harrison. Zach Gage followed with a one-run single to left field, which scored Tompkins and made it a 2-1 ball game.
Another effort in the fifth inning allowed Celina to chalk up another unearned run. The Bobcats scored one run on no hits and two miscues to even the score at 2-2.
Celina never had a chance to take the lead while Tompkins was on the mound as he retired the next six batters he faced in the sixth and seventh innings and set up the exciting finish in the eighth.
Decatur was to host Ponder on Tuesday and then host Paris on Friday to wrap up its playoff warm-up schedule. The Eagles, who have a first-round bye in the Class 3A state playoffs, will advance to the area finals next week against the winner of the Gatesville/Burnet games.
