From the Corpus Christ Caller Times ROUND ROCK — Rain pushed back the start of Calallen’s state baseball semifinal by more than two and a half hours.
Fortunately for the Wildcats, their offense arrived in the nick of time.
Calallen rallied from an early deficit to cruise past Frisco Wakeland 6-3 in the teams’ Class 4A state semifinal Wednesday night at Dell Diamond.
That earned the Wildcats (38-4) a date in Thursday night’s championship game against Brenham (36-5), which defeated Wichita Falls Rider 3-2 in eight innings in the other semifinal.
A win against the Cubs will give the Wildcats their fourth state championship since 2000. Calallen previously won it all in 2000, 2005 and 2008, with runner-up finishes in 1998, 1999 and 2002.
“We’re going to get mentally prepared tonight and we’re not going to be jacking around,” said second baseman Richard Montemayor, whose two-run single gave Calallen a lead it didn’t relinquish. “We’re going to take this (championship) game seriously, go out there and play our best and leave it all out there on the field.”
The Wildcats got another gutsy pitching performance from left-hander Rob Zastryzny, who started three days after throwing 103 pitches in the IV-4A clincher against Lake Travis. Zastryzny tossed another complete game to help dispatch the Wolverines (31-11). That’s the Calallen ace’s third complete game in the past six days.
Zastryzny was nicked for three runs, but shut out Wakeland from the second through sixth innings, allowing his teammates to mount their rally.
“Rob is a very competitive person and he loves to pitch,” Calallen coach Steve Chapman said. “He didn’t have his best stuff tonight, obviously, but he spotted the ball and pitched and we made plays behind him. He got tougher as the game went, from the fourth through the seventh.”
Trailing 2-1 in the fourth inning, the Wildcats rallied for three runs after failing to convert on opportunities in the previous two innings.
With one out and courtesy runner Preston Dorsey on first, Tate Bammert grounded out to third. Third baseman Willie Schwanke threw to second, but his throw sailed wide, allowing Dorsey to take third.
Hunter Whetsel then followed with a sacrifice fly to left to bring in Dorsey for the 2-2 deadlock. Brett Bell then singled to right to put runners on first and third.
Bell stole second and Montemayor then delivered the inning’s key hit, a two-run single to left-center that plated courtesy runner Brian McClendon and Bell for a 4-2 advantage.
“Going into that inning, we knew it was going to be a big inning and a decisive part of the game,” Montemayor said. “We were just trying to get people on base, put the ball in play and make things happen.”
Wakeland put two runners on with one out in the fifth, but Calallen starter Rob Zastryzny struck out Greg McCall and got Sean McCracken to ground back to the mound.
The Wildcats, however, didn’t squander their chance in the fifth, as Chad Vanaman lined a single up the middle to score Shilo Whetsel from second.
Calallen padded that lead in the sixth, with Bell scoring from third after reliever Jeff Oracion’s wild pitch.
The game started with the Wolverines getting to Zastryzny for a run in the first inning.
Schwanke led off with a single to short center field and after an errant pickoff attempt by Zastryzny, advanced to second.
After moving to third on Eric Swann’s groundout, Schwanke scored on McCall’s single to right. McCracken then walked and a passed ball by Calallen catcher Vanaman gave Wakeland runners on second and third with one out.
Joey Swanner promptly dropped a single into left, scoring McCall for a 2-0 lead and moving McCracken to third, with Swanner stealing second moments later.
Zastryzny struck out Landon Baker and then battled Nick Buhler through an 11-pitch at-bat before inducing a groundout to second.
In the bottom of the first, Calallen’s Brett Bell led off with a triple to left-center thanks to some miscommunication between two Wakeland outfielders.
One out later, Wyatt Mathisen’s sacrifice fly to center scored Bell to make it 2-1.
In the second, Calallen put runners on second and third with two outs, but Wakeland starter Hayden Nixon got Bell to fly out to right to end the threat.
The Wildcats threatened again in the third, with Montemayor leading off with a double. But Nixon promptly got Mathisen to pop up, Zastryzny to fly out and Tyler Neslony to foul out.
WAKE ab r h bi CAL ab r h bi
Schwanke 3b 3 1 2 1 Bell 2b 3 3 2 0
Swann lf 4 0 1 0 Montemayor lf 4 0 3 2
McCall c 3 1 1 1 Mathisen ss 3 0 0 1
McCraken rf 2 0 0 0 Zastryzny p 4 1 2 0
Swanner cf 3 0 1 1 Neslony rf 3 0 0 0
Baker ss 3 0 h b Vanaman c 3 1 2 1
Buhler 1b 3 0 0 0 Vandevere 1b 3 0 1 0
Ohearn dh 3 0 1 0 Bammert dh 3 0 0 0
Leafgren 2b 2 1 1 0 McClendon pr 0 1 0 0
Whetsel cf 2 0 1 1
Totals 26 3 7 3 Totals 28 6 11 5
Frisco Wakeland 200 000 1—3 7 2
Calallen 100 311 x—6 11 1
E — Zastryzny, Schwanke 2, Neslony. DP — Wakeland 1. LOB — Wakeland 5, Calallen 7. 2B — Zastryzny, Whetsel, Montemayor. 3B — Bell. SB — Swanner, Bell 2. S — Leafgren. SF — Mathisen, Whetsel, Schwanke.
Frisco Wakeland i h r e bb so
Nixon L, 5-5 4 8 5 2 0 2
Oracion 2 3 1 1 1 1
Calallen i h r e bb so
Zastryzny W, 16-1 7 7 3 3 1 3
Nixon pitched to 1 batter in the 5th inning.
WP — Oracion. PB — Vanaman. Umpires — Home, Ron King. First, Wilbert Boykins. Second, Steve Kraft. Third, Billy Hardin. T — 2:05. A — 2,567.
