Look: San Antonio Reagan rallies to beat Eagle Pass and advance to Region IV-6A baseball final
LAREDO - San Antonio Reagan scored four runs in the fifth inning and held on for an 8-7 victory over Eagle Pass in their one-game Texas Class 6A baseball regional semifinal game at Veteran’s Field on Thursday night.
The Rattlers advance to the Region IV-6A final against the winner of the Austin Lake Travis vs. La Joya series. Austin Lake Travis leads the series 1-0.
The Rattlers were resilient on Thursday, overcoming a three-run deficit and the ejection of a key player to pull out the victory.
“It was incredible, and I could not be more proud of the way that they hung in there,” San Antonio Reagan head coach Chans Chapman said. “We did not play very well, and we had everything go against us that could go. They hung in there and hung around, kept fighting, kept cheering for each other and it worked out at the end. The resilience that they had tonight was unbelievable.”
Eagle Pass opened the game with back-to-back doubles by Aiden Lopez and Jarod Romero to give the Eagles an early 1-0 lead. Romero eventually came around to score to make it 2-0.
In the bottom of the first, after Eagle Pass picked up two quick outs, Rattlers catcher Andrew Ermis hit a hard ground ball to third base. Ermis hustled up the first base line and was attempting to beat out a high throw when he collied with Eagle Pass first baseman Derek Ruiz and was ejected from the game.
The ejection forced Chapman to use sophomore Caden Roy as the catcher for the rest of the game.
In the third inning San Antonio Reagan started to make some noise at the plate. Teagan Peeples and Cole Tabor led off the inning with back-to-back walks, prompting Eagle Pass to go to the bullpen. Donovan Becerra came on in relief of Eagle Pass starter Alex Paniagua with Peeples and Tabor on base and nobody out. Eagle Pass went on to commit three errors in the inning and San Antonio Reagan plated four runs to take a 4-2 lead.
The Eagles regained the lead in the fifth inning after opening with three consecutive hits by Lopez, Romero and Ruiz. One run came home on a single by Ruiz and Isaac Stanwick drew a bases-load walk to score another run and tie the game at 4-4.
Chapman went to the bullpen and replaced starter Aiden Coleman with Billy Beahr, but Eagle Pass scored three more runs in the inning to take a 7-4 lead.
San Antonio Reagan refused to go away. A single by Greer and a double by Luke Sasser got things rolling in the fifth inning, and when the dust settled, the Rattlers had taken an 8-7 lead. A lead they would not relinquish.
“They figured it out,” Chapman said of Reagan’s four-run outburst in the fifth inning. “There was no magic potion. They kept fighting and that is one thing that we talk about since day one. We are going to fight and play hard till the end.”
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