By Thomas Jones, Sports Editor

 

ROUND ROCK – A fourth-inning meltdown in the sweltering heat of Dell Diamond helped end Westlake’s season a game short of the state title contest.

 El Paso Socorro, which used its power-hitting attack to hold onto a state ranking throughout the season, flashed its muscle during a five-run fourth frame that keyed its 11-3 win in a Class 5A state semifinal Friday afternoon.

 The Bulldogs blasted back-to-back home runs off Westlake starter James Ferguson and took advantage of several Chap miscues while breaking a game deadlocked at 3-3 after the third inning.

 “I’m not sure what happened to us mentally, but we kind of collapsed,” Westlake coach Jim Darilek said, citing his team’s four errors. “We’ve been playing error-free ball for most of the playoffs, but it was just a struggle for us to make routine plays today.”

Westlake’s struggles in the fourth began when Ferguson allowed a leadoff single to Angel Soria and hit Aaron Olivas with one out. Socorro’s Cory Falvey then broke the tie with a three-run homer over the left-field wall for his 17th dinger of the season. Socorro pitcher Bobby Mares followed with a solo shot. 

The homers also triggered a flurry of taunts between the Socorro squad and the vociferous Westlake student support, which braved the 101-degree weather to jeer the Bulldogs.

“They’re just talking all that smack like they do,” Falvey said. “But those home runs must have shut them up. If that doesn’t, I don’t know what would. It got quiet after that.

“Don’t underestimate us. We may be small, but we’ll scrap and battle, battle, battle. That’s what we do.”

A spate of miscues didn’t help Westlake’s cause during the fourth. The Chaps committed two errors in the frame, including one that negated a likely double play. 

The Bulldogs (34-4) never looked back while reaching Saturday’s championship tilt against Lufkin, which they won 12-7 to seize El Paso’s first state baseball title since 1949.

“Throughout their lineup, they do a good job,” Darilek said. “They’re hitting .400 for the season, so obviously they’re doing something right. Our pitchers kept getting the ball up. We knew that if we left the ball up, they’d hit it hard. And they did.”

“Give [the Bulldogs] credit. They hit the ball and played really well today, and we didn’t.”

According to one of Westlake’s senior leaders, the setback didn’t diminish the season, which ended with the program’s first state tournament appearance in a decade.

 “No one knew that we’d make it this far, but we proved everybody wrong just by getting here,” Westlake shortstop Stephen Koenig said. “I just wish we could play tomorrow.”

 Westlake (26-13) had four hits against Mares, who earned the complete-game win. Only one of those hits came after Socorro’s big fourth inning.

“We didn’t do much after that inning, so it had some effect on us,” Darilek said. “We had battled back and tied the game, but that inning was a killer.” 

Socorro flashed its offensive punch early. George Stoltz led off the bottom of the first inning with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Olivas. The Bulldogs added two more runs in the second inning before Westlake center fielder Collin Shaw snuffed the scoring with a running catch deep in the gap.

Westlake evened the contest in the third frame. First baseman Joseph Trahan drove home courtesy runner Jon Darilek with a bases-loaded single, and Chandler Geller hustled home on an errant throw by the right fielder. 

Shaw then chopped a grounder to third base, which scored Miles Hanson.

“We battled back, but we couldn’t keep it going,” Jim Darilek said. 

Socorro had no such problems against Ferguson, who had tendonitis in his throwing shoulder exacerbated by a heavy workload in Westlake’s two wins over San Antonio Reagan in the regional finals a week earlier. 

“I think James’ arm is sore from last week,” Darilek said. “He didn’t pitch real well; with that tendonitis, he didn’t have his normal velocity. That frustrated him because he couldn’t get the ball by people.”

Socorro had nine of its 11 hits against Ferguson before the Chap ace left the game after the fourth inning. The Bulldogs added three more runs against reliever Holt McNair in the sixth inning.

Five-foot-three-inch Socorro catcher JessiRay Navarrette went 3-for-4 to pace the Bulldog attack. He also made a critical defensive play in the fifth inning when he blocked the plate against the 6-3 Hanson, who was trying to score on a double steal.

“I thought we could score there, but Miles ran into the catcher instead of going around him,” Darilek said. “We did a lot of things like that, and it added up.”

Still, said Koenig, the disappointing state-semifinal loss couldn’t erase the memories of the Chaps’ best season in a decade. Koenig, one of 13 seniors on the team, has played with most of his Westlake teammates since Little League.

“It’s been great this year,” he said. “We told ourselves that we were going to make it to state. We were shocked that we made it this far, but we were here to win it. It just didn’t work out.”