Both junior second baseman Aaron Black and senior center fielder Lewis Guilbeau were unanimous selections to the all-district first team after their strong seasons.

Senior pitcher Carson Viglione, junior third baseman Gordy Taylor and senior designated hitter Corbin Benavides landed on the first team as did sophomore Tate Shaw in the first team utility spot.

Senior shortstop Hayden Ross made the all-district second team as did junior outfielder Alex Cabezas, while junior catcher Zach Suarez was named honorable mention.

Also, 12 Chaps made the academic all-district list – Chris Bybee, Daniel Gremaud, Sean LaBaw, Cameron Bishop, Ryan Cunningham, Duncan Brown, Black, Ross, Viglione, Guilbeau, Cabezas and Shaw.

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Final District 15-5A baseball standings
Team W L
Anderson 13 2
Westlake 11 4
Austin High10 5
Bowie 8 7
Akins 3 12
Del Valle 0 15

The Westlake Chaparrals scored an astonishing 13 runs in the top of the sixth at Burger Field, as they went on to beat the Akins Eagles 20-0 in six innings.

Nineteen Westlake (22-5-1, 10-4) batters went up to hit in the decisive sixth inning, and the Eagles had four different pitchers take the mound before they could get three outs.

At one point, the Chaparrals had 10 straight batters reach at least first base. In the end, the inning consisted of 13 runs, 10 hits, five walks and two errors.

“We have not scored 20 runs this year, but it is a great feeling knowing that you are hitting the ball real well or making plays behind the plate,” Hayden Ross said. “I wish every game could be like that.”

Westlake did not start out as fast, but it only took one pitch for Lewis Guilbeau to introduce himself to Akins pitcher Tim Jackson. With two outs and no one on base, Guilbeau took the first pitch he saw and bombed it 325 feet over left field at Burger Stadium.

Jackson didn’t get any help from his fielders in the inning either and an error by the left fielder, who lost the ball in the sun, allowed Zach Suarez to score from first. The Chaparrals took a 2-0 lead early.

“I have never done that before,” said Guilbeau of hitting his home run on the first pitch. “It was definitely on my bucket list.”

Westlake continued to hit well into the second inning. Tate Shaw hit a sacrifice to center to score Gordy Taylor, who walked to start the inning. The next batter, Ross, doubled to left, scoring John Covelli. Ross would later steal third and score on a wild pitch.

Aaron Black hit a triple to deep right field, and the Chaparrals went up 6-0 when Gordy Taylor would bring him home after a line drive over the second baseman.

The fourth inning Westlake failed to get a hit but still scored. Ross first walked with two outs, then stole second and third. Next Guilbeau walked, and Suarez was up to bat with runners on the corners. Guilbeau stole second, and while the catcher tried to throw him out, Ross would steal home.

Carson Viglione did not get a hit against him until the Chaparrals had a 7-0 lead.

The first three innings, only one Akins player was able to make it on base off an error by the Chaparral’s third baseman. Viglione’s curveball kept the Akins hitters guessing, and the pitcher was always on the offensive. Staying ahead of the count allowed Viglione to strike out six and only allow two walks and one hit.

“To work ahead in the count is your goal as a pitcher,” Viglione said. “You get ahead then you can work off speed, you can intentionally throw a call to get them of balance. You are in more control.”

The game might as well have been over before the beginning of the sixth, but Westlake assured that with their 13-run sixth inning. Almost doubling their total the Chaparrals brought their lead to 20. It was not just the hitting that was in Westlake’s favor, and the Eagles defense gifted the Chaparrals extra chances with numerous errors.

With the way Westlake was hitting and pitching they did not need any help, but they took it and won by double digits for the second time in a week.

“It is always good to win and to win that big is pretty nice,” Guilbeau said. “We realize that this is just a game and next week this game doesn’t matter at all and those runs we scored doesn’t matter at all, so we will take this into Bowie with our momentum.”

Westlake hosts Bowie 7 p.m. Friday in the regular-season finale.

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Aaron Black had the game-winning RBI in the top of the seventh inning to score Carson Spencer (running for Frankie Hernandez) to make the final 4-3 score on a night where Westlake got back to sound defense and pitching for seven innings.

The night before, the Chaps lost 5-3 to Austin High as the Maroons scored five runs in one sloppy inning.

“We played a very, very clean game and I was very pleased with the way we played Saturday,” coach Jim Darilek said. “We had a talk about doing fundamental things right (after Friday’s loss) and I thought we played a very good game against a very good team.”

Gordy Taylor got the start and went three innings against Cedar Park, with Tate Shaw going the next three frames and Ryan Cunningham closing the door in the seventh inning.

Daniel Gremaud, Lewis Guilbeau and Carson Viglione knocked in the other three Westlake runs.

“We had a bunch of people contribute, had real solid defense and three guys throw and all three of them threw very well,” Darilek said.

Darilek said that the one fateful inning against Austin High just a product of inconsistency that crops up throughout the course of a high school season.

“They’re a good bunch of guys,” Darilek said. “The bottom line is we had a bad inning where we didn’t function and gave the game away. Except that one half of a defensive inning we played a real nice game (against Austin High) … But that’s baseball, that happens.”

With the loss to Austin High, Westlake sits in a three-way tie for second place at 8-4 with Bowie and the Maroons, with Anderson all but sewing up the top seed.

The Chaps have a 2-1 series edge on Austin High, and are tied 1-1 with Bowie.

As of Monday Anderson sat in first place at 10-2, with Westlake, Bowie and Austin High all at 8-4 one more week of play next week (and one game before press time on April 17). All four playoff spots have been secured, as Akins (2-10) cannot get to eight wins.

Westlake faces Akins 7:30 p.m. Friday at Burger Field. After a nondistrict game at Smithson Valley 1 p.m. Saturday, the Chaps close out the regular season in the district finale against Bowie, set for 7 p.m. April 27 at Westlake.

Westlake baseball dropped their second consecutive district game in Friday night’s 5-3 loss to Austin High.

Westlake (20-5, 8-4 in District 15-5A) held Austin High (8-4) scoreless for the majority of the game, but the Chaps were undone by a shaky fifth inning in which the Maroons scored all five of their runs.

“You give them five runs, and I mean literally give them five runs, that’s just bad baseball,” said coach Jim Darilek.

Both teams struggled to score in the early going until the top of the fourth inning, when Westlake got back-to-back doubles by Zach Suarez and Carson Viglione to put the Chaps ahead by 1-0.

Westlake added to its lead in the fifth with two more doubles. This time, left fielder Tate Shaw was driven in by pitcher Lewis Guilbeau, putting Westlake up 2-0.

Then things fell apart for Westlake in the bottom of the fifth.

Guilbeau walked the first two batters of the inning, both of whom advanced to scoring position by stealing. With runners on second and third and no outs, Guilbeau was able to strike out the next two batters and give Westlake some breathing room.

The breathing room was short-lived, however, as both Austin High runners were able to score on wild pitches, tying the game 2-2. Another batter reached on a walk, allowing Austin High’s Greg Salinas to drive in a third run with a stand up triple. Another walk, followed by a two RBI single put Austin High up 5-2.

Relief pitcher Sean LaBaw then came in and ended the inning by forcing a groundout.

Westlake managed a brief rally in the sixth. The first two Westlake batters reached on an error and a walk, but a double play caught the lead runner and left the Chaps with a runner on second and two outs. Right fielder Alex Cabezas drove him home with a single, bringing the score to 5-3 after the sixth.

Shaw led off the seventh with a single, but Westlake was unable to capitalize on the hit.

“Once we were down by two runs, I thought that we were in it, but it didn’t go our way,” said Cabezas. “We’ve just got to keep hitting, we’ll be back.”

Guilbeau pitched 4 2/3 innings with six hits, five runs, four strikeouts, and five walks. LaBaw contributed 1 1/3 innings of relief with no runs, no hits, one strikeout, and no walks.

Shaw led the Westlake offense in hits, going 2-for-4 with a double. Guilbeau went 1-for-4 with an RBI double, and Viglione went 1-for-3 and also had an RBI double. Suarez rounded out Westlake’s slugging by going 1-for-4 with double and Cabezas was 1-for-2 with an RBI and a walk.

Nursing a two-run lead heading into the final inning Thursday night at Burger Field, Westlake made sure there would be no repeat come-from-behind win by Bowie this time.

More than a half-dozen errors by the Bulldogs (15-9, 6-4) helped Westlake build a 6-4 lead after six, and the Chaps crushed the ball in the top of the seventh for plenty of breathing room, aided by two triples and a solo home run en route to a 12-4 win.

With Anderson (16-7) losing Thursday it puts Westlake (20-3) and the Trojans in a two-way tie for first place at 8-2. The two play Tuesday night, 5 p.m. at Nelson Field.

“Last time it was heartbreak,” said winning pitcher Carson Viglione. “So I’m glad we came out and won. We’ve got to come out and play Anderson now, they’re the team to beat.”

Bowie wound up making eight errors in the loss when it was all said and done. Meanwhile Westlake showed it has sharpened up in all facets of the game in the second district meeting between the two rivals.

Center fielder Lewis Guilbeau went 3-for-5 with a triple, homer and three RBIs, and the Texas State-bound senior closed things out with a clean inning of work in the bottom of the seventh.

“We’re having a blast out there,” Guilbeau said. “It’s all coming together right now, we’ve still got to work on some things but all in all, it’s really fun right now.”

After the first Bowie lead 2-1, it was 3-3 after two and Westlake lead 4-3 after three. They didn’t trail again.

Viglione settled in after a rough first inning, and was able to work out of trouble a couple of times, allowing just two hits and two runs the next five innings. He was also 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI.

“It was a little scary there for a bit but I always knew we were going to come up and hit,” Viglione said. “It didn’t really phase me at the time.”

The top of the seventh started off with a walk by Aaron Black, and Corbin Benavides rocked a triple to deep right field to bring him in. Carson Spencer followed with an RBI single, and it was 8-4 just like that. As right fielder Alex Cabezas was thrown out at first base, Spencer kept running around second and toward third as an errant throw allowed him to score all the way from first on the groundout.

Hayden Ross was hit by a pitch for the second time and another triple, this time off the bat of left fielder Tate Shaw, landed at the base of the right-field fence to make it a 10-4 ballgame. A passed ball allowed Shaw to score and prompted a pitching change in the middle of Guilbeau’s at-bat with a 2-2 count.

He homered on the first pitch to left-center gave Westlake 12 runs on nine hits, and the squad had just one error in the bottom of the sixth, which wound up harmless as Viglione struck out two straight and induced an easy groundout to Ross.

Westlake was aggressive whenever it could, going for the extra base consistently, charging the plate on bunt attempts, and it all paid off.

“It’s the pressure – if you make the defense stress out they make mental mistakes,” said third baseman Gordy Taylor, who had three hits. “It’s always good to be aggressive. We’re feeling really good. It’s a confidence boost, and it’s always good to beat a good team like that.”

Guilbeau’s blast capped the scoring in the game, and it impressively came after a pitching change in the middle of his at-bat. With a 1-2 count, Bowie pitcher Glenn Disbro unleashed a wild pitch that brought in Shaw to score, and that was it for him as he got the hook after that pitch.

New Bulldog pitcher Andrew Palz entered with a 2-2 count to the batter, and Guilbeau was sitting fastball.

It came, and it went sailing over the left-center field fence.
“It was really weird to be honest – especially with two strikes but you’ve just got to expect anything,” Guilbeau said. “I was looking straight fastball and he threw a fastball, so I hit a home run.”

First baseman Wes Nichol made several good digs as the Chaps defense covered a lot of ground on the day, with Taylor at third, Ross at short and Black at second all showing off some range. Ross scored three runs and reached via single, walk and two hit by pitches. The outfield closed on potential hits and hits in the gap as well.

Shaw had two runs scored and put down a successful sac-bunt twice, Black crossed home twice and Taylor went 3-for-5.

“We’re not making any errors anymore and it definitely helps and adds up, especially if the other teams makes some errors,” Viglione said. “It’s definitely helping the pitchers to have more runs. We’re playing with less stress and playing a lot better now.”

With an 11-0 win over Akins on April 3, Westlake has won four straight. Against Akins, Black had a two-run homer to lea the hit parade and the team drew six walks. Chase Huebinger and Guilbeau combined on the win.

Now the attention turns toward the Trojans as the Chaps look for the district crown.

“Every game is must-win now since we lost to Anderson,” Guilbeau said. “We’ve got to beat them. We play them next Tuesday, that’s a do-or-die. The rest of the season we can’t really look forward to anything, so right now our focus is Anderson.”

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With a sunset as the backdrop and a cool breeze throughout the game, the Westlake Chaps baseball team enjoyed a picturesque evening Friday at Del Valle.

The Chaps brought some thunder to the scene with their bats while Gordy Taylor threw lightning strikes for Westlake on the mound en route to an 11-0 district victory over the Cardinals.

Coming off of a 6-3 victory over Austin on March 27, the Chaps kept their bats flying early and often as they registered four runs in two different innings. The Westlake (19-3, 7-2) pitchers only gave up two hits combined as the Chaps continued their push towards the top of the District 15-5A standings.

“Del Valle is having a rough season, so this gave us a chance to get a couple of guys some work,” coach Jim Darilek said. “We hit the ball well today and I was impressed by Gordy (Taylor).”

The junior right-hander Taylor pitched with control throughout the evening, whiffing six Del Valle batters while giving up just two hits in his four innings of work.

Taylor established his dominance in the third inning, as he caught Del Valle’s Brazhon Thomas and Junior Salazar striking out before retiring the third hitter of the frame.

“Coach always tells us to ‘just throw strikes’ because good things will happen,” said Taylor, who only had two walks in the outing. “Then we just had to hit the ball, and that’s how you win games.”

Having to hit the ball was an understatement.

Junior second baseman Aaron Black stepped in and turned a lazy fastball into a triple in the second inning, scoring two Westlake base runners. Black then capped off a four-run Chaparral third inning with a double that scored Alex Cabezas and John Covelli. Black would finish the night batting 2-for-3 with four RBIs.

Despite Black’s big night, the largest ovation from the Westlake dugout was credited to senior Corbin Benavides, who garnered his first hit of the season on an RBI single in the fifth inning to score Zach Suarez.

“I was just trying to get on and get some runs,” Benavides laughed of about his at-bat. “Last time up, I just went back down looking.”

Suarez also contributed two doubles on the evening.

The Chaps topped Akins 11-0 Tuesday night and they play Bowie at Burger Stadium 5 p.m. Thursday.

Taylor said that as long as Westlake continues playing like a team, they could win against anyone.

“We just have to stay on the same page as a team,” Taylor said. “We have to contribute in every way possible to keep on winning.”

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Westlake was cruising along Friday night went things went awry at the worst time.

Walks and errors in the seventh inning allowed Bowie to come from a 4-0 deficit for a 6-4 win Friday, and although the Chaps tried to shake the uncharacteristic loss, things didn’t get much better in a 7-0 defeat Saturday against Anderson.

“We have not played like that all year,” coach Jim Darilek said after the loss Saturday. “I think it was a culmination of things and we just kind of lost our composure. It was uncharacteristic.”

A rally for a big win, late-inning mishaps leading to a loss  and a dominant pitcher on his game led to an up-and-down week for Westlake baseball in less than a 72-hour span.

The Chaps took down Akins 14-4 Wednesday with 11 unanswered runs, eight of which came in one inning. Then, Friday the Chaps were cruising along toward another district win when they let a seventh-inning lead slip away in a 6-4 loss to the Bulldogs.

On Saturday Anderson came to visit for the second district meeting this season, and as Westlake tried to shake off the previous night’s loss little things added up to the 7-0 defeat.

“Coach told us last night to put everything behind us and I felt like we had a lot of energy this morning,” senior shortstop Hayden Ross said. “Things were going good in the cages, pregame was good, but I think some guys were still thinking about the game a little bit. We just didn’t come out and hit.”

Anderson starter Justin Holder was even more dominant than the last time he faced Westlake (16-3, 4-2) in the Chaps narrow 3-2 win back on March 5. Holder allowed just two hits – none after the third inning – and Westlake starter Lewis Guilbeau battled through some control problems before the game got away in the sixth inning.

It became evident that Anderson (13-5, 5-1) likely had the upper hand in the top of the fourth inning. Following a single, sac-bunt and another single, Anderson perfectly executed a squeeze bunt to take a 3-0 lead, but even as the play developed there was no communication or alertness by the Chaps that the play was on.

“Just like the playoffs – you get beat on Friday you’ve got to be ready to get back up and play on Saturday,” Darilek said. “We’re still really inexperienced in those things, so hopefully we’re building toward something for the end of the season. We’ll take this and learn and get better.”

The game stayed close as Anderson scored one run in the first, third and fourth innings, but a three-run triple by Justin Montemayor in the sixth led to a four-run inning as Anderson put the game out of reach.

Westlake had some chances to score while the game was still close, but couldn’t string anything together.

Catcher Zach Suarez led off the second inning with a hard-hit infield single to the right side. Carson Viglione showed bunt twice as he went down 0-2 before a strikeout, and John Covelli hit into a double play to end the inning with Anderson up 1-0.

The Chaps got the leadoff man on a second straight inning as Alex Cabezas ripped a double down the line past third. Holder buckled down again, striking out two hitters in a row before inducing a flyout by Ross to end the threat.

Tate Shaw reached on an error in the fourth with Westlake again getting the lead man on, but Guilbeau bounced into a double play. Suarez was hit by a pitch with two down but Holder got Viglione to end the threat.

Westlake was retired in order in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

Holder wound up striking out nine and walking none after allowing just three runs and three hits the first time he faced Westlake March 5. The Chaps are expecting to see him again on April 10 when the two teams meet for a third and final time in district play.

“Holder is a great pitcher,” Ross said. “Hits his spots, uses lot of different pitches, keeps hitters off-balance, it’s just something we’re going to have to work at. Next time we see him again we’re going to have to be ready for him.”

Guilbeau went six innings, striking out five but also walking five while allowing six earned. Sean LaBaw pitched the seventh, working around two hits and striking out one.

Akins, Bowie

Against Akins back on Wednesday, March 21, the Eagles ran out to a 4-3 lead after four innings but the Chaps clamped down from there while exploding at the plate.

Westlake put up eight runs in the fifth inning as Guilbeau and Covelli doubled, Gordy Taylor hit a triple and Viglione smacked a three-run homer.

Suarez was on base five times with three walks, a hit by pitch and reaching on an error. The Chaps had just eight hits as Akins aided the win with three errors and numerous free passes.

Chase Huebinger went 2 1/3 innings and Covelli came on for the next 3 2/3 before LaBaw closed it out with three strikeouts in the seventh.

The Chaps had trouble closing out Bowie Friday night as a myriad of walks and errors led to the comeback win by the Bulldogs. Anderson, meanwhile, was in the opposite position as the Trojans scored five seventh-inning runs to beat Austin High 9-8 on Friday.

Viglione pitched into the seventh against Bowie, departing with one runner on and one out.

Things fell apart from there.

Multiple errors in the infield allowed the Bulldogs to keep the inning alive and pull within 4-3 with two runners on.

After a strikeout, it was a walk to load the bases, a walk to bring in the tying run, then another walk as Bowie took the lead for good.

With plenty more district to go, Darilek said he expected his squad would be able to bounce back from this heading into next week’s action.

“Like I tell them all the time, you’re as good as you are tomorrow, that’s the bottom line,” Darilek said. “Whatever happened behind you is behind you,  you’ve got to go forward and think about the future.”

The Chaps host Austin High 7 p.m. Tuesday.

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The lead started early and their bats kept flying, as the No. 9 Westlake Chaparrals trounced the Del Valle Cardinals 8-1 March 14 at Westlake.

Behind senior Lewis Guilbeau’s strong pitching and Westlake’s big five-run inning, the Chaps were able to capitalize on Cardinal blunders helping advance their record to 15-1-1 (3-0 in district).

Guilbeau established his mound dominance early, striking out four of six Del Valle batters in the first two frames of play. The trend continued throughout the evening, as Guilbeau’s tough presence led to nine strikeouts and zero walks.

When Guilbeau wasn’t creating hard strikeouts, his defense was there to back him up. Junior Gordy Taylor commanded the infield, handling ground balls easily and only attributing to one error on a wild, rushed throw to first.

“We decided that I wouldn’t overpower it very much,” Guilbeau said of his pitching. “I just kept trying to pump strikes in the zone, and our defense made all the plays that they needed to make behind me.”

Pitching wasn’t the only impressive aspect of Westlake’s rout over the Cardinals.

Going into the sixth inning leading 3-1, the Chaps needed a cushion to seal the win, and that came in the form of 5-run frame, at a crucial moment.

After battling well throughout the night, Del Valle pitcher Quinton Rorhbough was roughed up in a sixth-inning that saw Cardinal errors and five Chap hits, including a big line-drive double from Zach Suarez that would score Cameron Bishop.

“It was 3-1, and he threw one straight in there,” the junior Suarez said of the pitch. “I just had to make sure that I made solid contact, and I did.”

The big inning gave Westlake eight runs for the second consecutive night, as the Chaps defeated Austin High School 8-5 March 13 at the Burger Center.

Carson Viglione picked up the victory as the Chaps scored all their runs in the fifth and sixth innings for the win. Westlake took the lead in the fifth as Tate Shaw and Alex Cabezas plated the go-ahead runs. It was short lived as Austin High tied it in the bottom half of the fifth, 3-3, but the Chaps answered right back with five runs in the top of the sixth for an 8-3 lead.

Carson Spencer, Chase Huebinger, Shaw and Cabezas came up with RBIs in the big inning to put the Chaps on top for good, with Sean LaBaw earning the save.

With the victory over Del Valle, the Chaps will enjoyed spring break before heading back to Burger Field to play Akins Tuesday (after press time).

However, infielder Corbin Benavides harps a familiar Westlake sentiment in regards to the break.

“We’re all excited to have a little time off, but we need to come back even more focused than now,” Benavides said. “We just want to keep on winning.”

The Chaps go on to host Bowie at  5 p.m. Friday and Anderson at 1 p.m. Saturday.

-Habeab Kurdi contributed to this story

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