The No. 18 Sam Houston Broncos gave the No. 2 Haughton Bucs an early exit in the Class 4A playoffs with a 7-2 Broncos’ win on Tuesday in Moss Bluff.
With the regional win, Sam Houston will be making their third consecutive appearance in the quarterfinal round.
The Broncos (24-11) jumped on the Bucs’ Hunter Bland early when Evan Powell roped a double to left-center to score Andrew Guillotte on a hit-and-run play. Garrett Logan plated Powell with a sacrifice fly to right for a 2-0 Sam Houston lead after one inning of play.
“I thought we ran the bases extremely well,” said Broncos’ head coach Brad Book. “I thought our hitters did a good job and it was a real good battle between him (Bland) and our hitters.”
Junior Cody Rider didn’t have the dominant game like he had against Breaux Bridge, but did make the Bucs put the ball in play to let his defense work behind him. Rider and the Broncos defense sat Haughton down in order in the second and third innings before the Bucs made trouble in the fourth.
Kevin Ginn led off the top of the fourth with a double up the middle to start things off for the Bucs (25-12). Sam Gullatt reached on a hit by pitch and Buddy McCoy roped a single to load the bases for Haughton with no outs. Brady McCoy grounded into a double play to score Ginn then Rider forced Bradley Ramsey to groundout to end the inning.
The only other Buc run came in the sixth when Ginn took Rider deep to left for a solo homerun to lead off the inning.
Rider (10-1) finished the game allowing two runs on seven hits with three strikeouts and one walk.
“The whole game he was basically one pitch, one location,” Book said on Rider. “He didn’t have an off-speed pitch and didn’t throw in very well. That was a blood and guts kind of game for him and I thought he competed very well.”
The Broncos built a lead in the third inning led by an RBI double by Billy Sommers. Two more runs came later in the third when Dyllon Johnson reached base on a dropped third strike with the ball getting away from Haughton’s Buddy McCoy.
Book said coming into the game Sam Houston would need some special defensive plays and that’s exactly what came late for the Broncos to stifle any kind of rally.
