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Area champions

DHS pitcher Justin Tompkins escapes 7th-inning jam to seal the deal

By Robert Morgan | Published Sunday, May 24, 2009

Pressure reached an all-time high Tuesday night in the area championship baseball game between the Decatur Eagles and the Burnet Bulldogs at Summit High School in Mansfield. With the bases loaded for Burnet and two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Decatur pitcher Justin Tompkins forced the final ground-out to cap a nine-strikeout, six-hit outing that gave the Eagles a 5-3 victory and a spot in the Class 3A regional quarterfinals.

"Justin's performance on the mound (against Burnet) was absolutely huge," said Decatur baseball coach Chris Carter. "Each time (Burnet) tried to gain momentum, Justin stepped up and shut them down."

Decatur jumped on the Bulldogs early, loading the bases with their first three hitters in the top of the first inning on a walk and two hits. Clean-up batter Chad Harrison hit an RBI sacrifice fly to center field to score the Eagles' first run, and Andrew Gage drove in another run with an infield error by Burnet.

Colton Parker, Tompkins, Andrew Gage and Zach Gage roughed up Burnet pitcher Tyler Rockafellow in the third inning for four hits and two runs to give the Eagles a 4-0 lead after the top of the third.

"We had a very good scouting report on (Rockafellow)," Carter said. "We knew he was probably going to come with a lot of first-pitch fastballs, we told the guys to be aggressive on those pitches."

Burnet was able to manufacture two runs on two hits and an error in the bottom of the third, and after relief pitcher Travis Hoffmeister struck out the bottom of the Eagles' order on 10 pitches in the top of the fourth, the momentum looked to have swung in the Bulldogs' direction. Then Tompkins went to work.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Tompkins struck out the first two Bulldogs on six straight pitches. After walking the next batter, Eagles catcher Ryan Cangley picked off the Burnet baserunner trying to steal second to end the inning.

After hitting an RBI single in the top of the fifth to extend the Eagle lead to 5-2, Tompkins retired three straight Burnet batters on just seven pitches in the bottom of the inning.

Tompkins finished the game three-for-three at the plate with an RBI to go along with his complete game from the mound.

While the Eagles were able to score early, they struggled at the plate after the third inning, striking out 11 times and amassing only two hits. Carter attributes Decatur's struggles to the pitching of the Bulldogs' Hoffmeister.

"(Hoffmeister) is a really good pitcher and we knew that," Carter said. "It is not that we can't hit; he just pitched extremely well. There is nothing we really need to do to adjust, I just want our guys to keep being aggressive."

Parker had two hits and Brennan Moore, Andrew Gage and Zach Gage each had one. Harrison and Andrew Gage each added two RBIs.