Following all the home runs, school records and ill-fated hidden-ball tricks, Westlake’s season came to a sudden end because of one simple hardball truth.

A team that commits nine errors in two games will have difficulty advancing in the Class 5A playoffs, and that’s the exact scenario that played out in a dramatic doubleheader against San Antonio Stevens Saturday at Woerner Field.

After evening their best-of-three Region IV area series behind a historic home-run splurge in a 17-6 win, the Chaps fell 4-3 in a taut contest that stretched nine innings. The setback ended Westlake’s hopes of defending its regional title while sending the team to its earliest playoff exit since a second-round playoff loss to Klein in 2006.

Stevens beat the Chaps 1-0 in the series opener Thursday at Wolff Stadium in San Antonio.

Coach Jim Darilek didn’t hesitate when deciphering the reasons for his team’s loss. All six Stevens runs in game one were unearned. In the second game, the Falcons scored on a passed ball and a balk.

“The whole series, we played horrible defense,” he said. “You just can’t do that and expect to win.”

Darilek also thought his team’s record-setting display of power in Saturday’s first game contributed to its subsequent loss. The Chaps (24-12-1) rallied from a 6-3 deficit with an 11-run fourth inning that featured five home runs, a new school record for home runs in a single frame.

“I think we had a mental letdown after that first game,” Darilek said. “We should have hit that [second-game] pitcher like we hit their other pitchers. We got home-run happy and tried to hit that ball too hard.

“We talked about staying relaxed [after that first game] and not do too much, but that gets in your head.”

Stevens (22-8) went through three pitchers in Saturday’s first contest but leaned on five and two/thirds strong innings from Josh Arriaga to keep the Chaps’ offense in check in the deciding game. Westlake had just four hits against Arriaga, including a two-out double by Chris Watkins in the fourth inning that drove in Jon Darilek and cut Stevens’ lead to 2-1.

With the Falcons nursing that one-run lead, game-one hero Rene Solis entered the contest intent on repeating his success from the series opener May 13. Solis (11-4) struck out 11 in a complete-game effort during Stevens’ 1-0 win.

But Chap catcher Robert Baldwin quickly proved that his team had learned from its mistakes. He greeted Solis with a two-out double that scored courtesy runner Matt Balsizer. First baseman Bret Schumacher then reached base on a Stevens error, and second baseman Davis Breedlove poked a single past his Stevens counterpart to drive in courtesy runner Robert Andon.

Westlake’s 3-2 lead lasted less than an inning. Stevens’ Joanthony Cantu led off the seventh stanza with a double and reached third base on a sacrifice bunt. He then scampered home on a passed ball to even the score and force extra innings.

The Chaps couldn’t score again against Solis, but Stevens needed a bit of backfired chicanery to plate a run against Westlake reliever Lewis Guilbeau.

Stevens infielder Keyon Barnes beat a throw from first baseman Miles Hanson to reach third base with one out in the top of the ninth. Sophomore Hayden Ross, who had come in for starting third bagger Troup Evans for defensive purposes, then hid the ball in his glove while simulating an exchange back to the mound. Barnes then shuffled a few steps down the base path, thinking that Guilbeau had the ball. Ross alertly tagged him for the second out, but chaos then ensued among the blue. The base umpire ruled Barnes out, but the home-plate umpire overturned the call as Barnes and Stevens coach Preston Rogers vociferously protested the ruling.

After a quick discussion, the umpires ruled the play a balk and directed Barnes home for what became the winning run. The ruling was correct: When Ross kept the ball, Guilbeau walked into the dirt surrounding the pitcher’s mound. A pitcher cannot touch the dirt between pitches with runners on the bags without committing a balk, which advances all runners one base.

The hidden-ball attempt by the two sophomores did not come from the bench, Darilek said.

“They improvised that,” he said. “That’s summer-ball stuff right there.”

Jon Darilek kept Westlake’s hopes for a rally alive with a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth. Guilbeau followed with a walk before Solis coaxed a groundout from Hanson to end the game.

“It was a weird day,” Westlake’s Chris Watkins said. “We had a slew of home runs, and that was cool to see. But it doesn’t matter how much you beat them by as long as you get a win. We couldn’t get that done in the second game.

“This is hard because we were expecting to go a lot farther.”

Collin Shaw, the Chaps’ regular center fielder, recovered from a shaky start and worked five innings in his sixth start of the season. Stevens had three hits and two runs off Shaw in the first frame but didn’t have another hit until the sixth inning.

Hanson and Baldwin each had two hits in their final games as Chaps.