Published: May 15, 2008 11:00 am      

Payoff pitch: Mildred puts faith in senior battery, 1-game format (includes corrected directions)

MILDRED — With a senior ace and a salty opponent, one-game playoffs can be the way to go in high school baseball’s series-laden format.

Coach Robert Barber’s banking on as much.

His Mildred Eagles (25-4) face No. 4 Gunter (27-4) in the Class 2A, Region II Quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Frisco High School’s Smotherman Field. The Tigers are coming off a 14-4, 6-4 sweep of Caddo Mills, and have an arsenal of arms, Barber said.

“They’ve got good pitching, plenty of pitching,” he said.

Gunter wanted a series, but Barber won the flip for one game moments after the Eagles finished off an epic three-game set by beating Bells, 19-12, Saturday. The two teams combined for 60 runs in 19 innings.

The Eagles don’t lack for pitching. Sophomore Miles Weaver was dominant at times in Saturday’s finale, and freshman Zach Thomas — the starter in a Game 2 loss — opened the district season on the mound for the Eagles and has a season’s worth of varsity experience now. Sophomore Drew Burnett came in and shut the door on Bells with three straight strikeouts during his 1 2/3 innings worth of work in relief of Weaver.

Still, Barber has Cory Roper (9-2), last year’s district pitcher of the year and owner of a regular-season 1.06 ERA to lean on.

“I’ve played since I was 5 years old for this game,” Roper said. “It’s my senior year, and we have one chance to win it.”

Roper was hardly sharp in the 6-5 series-opening win over Bells. He gave up seven hits and walked three, but said he didn’t get calls on the corner he is accustomed to.

“He didn’t throw his best,” senior catcher Trevor Burnett said, “but I think he’ll do well this game.”

If he does, Barber likes his club’s odds. With a seasoned veteran on the mound, it’s Mildred best chance, he said.

Incidentally, it’s also a chance to rest his catcher.

Burnett caught all 19 innings of last weekend’s series and he’s got the wounds to prove it. It was the most he’s he been beat up this year, he said, taking one ball off the inner thigh, and another ... well, where catchers don’t want to get hit.

Barber originally planned to catch brother Drew in Game 2, but went with Trevor after looking ahead to a possible Game 3, and possible summons to Drew for relief duty. He wanted a fresh Drew.

Trevor said it was no sweat.

“I took a few more (off the body) than usual,” he said, but fatigue wasn’t an issue. “Coach Barber’s kept us in shape.”

Barber, a catcher himself, said Trevor was the first person he congratulated — and thanked — after the series finale.

“I’ve caught two games in one day plenty of times,” Barber said. “He was getting beat up back there. ...

“I felt bad for him, but I thanked him for what he did. He did a lot for us.”

He’d like for his senior battery tandem — which also had the team’s only home runs in the series — to do a little more Friday. It could mean another step toward Austin, a place Mildred baseball hasn’t been in a decade.

“If I have a good game, we should have a good game,” Roper said.

—————

Raymond Linex II may be reached via e-mail at rlinex@corsicanadailysun.com.



Mildred vs. Gunter

at Frisco

 7:30 p.m. Friday



Directions from Mildred: Take 45-75 north to IH-635. Take the West exit for about a mile, then take the Dallas North Toll Road. In Frisco, take the Main St. exit and go right. Go over the railroad tracks to S. County/N. County Road, and take a left onto N. County. The stadium is about a half mile up on the left.

— Google Maps