Rams, Lady Rams Eliminated from Post Season Action

May 23, 2016 - Last Friday, the Joaquin Rams varsity baseball team defeated the Lovelady Lions by a 4-3 score to take a 1-0 lead in their UIL State Quarterfinal round playoff series. The game was Game 1 of a best-of-three game format, played at Jasper Bulldog Stadium. Cole Powdrill pitched the full seven innings in the contest. He gave up eight hits, struck out five batters and walked three. Joaquin got a lot of help from their defense, especially third baseman Justin Hooper who threw out six Lions on ground-outs. The Rams infield retired the Lions on three ground balls in the bottom of the first inning, allowing Powdrill to only throw three pitches in the bottom half of the inning. A big double play by middle infielders Klay Adkison, and Brock Lawson, were able to thwart a Lions rally in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The JHS outfield played well. Hunter Harper made a great backhanded running catch, on a long fly ball hit deep in the power ally, which would have led to multiple runs batted in for Lovelady.

Offensively, Joaquin used seven hits, three hit batsmen and two Lions errors to eventually gain the one-point win.

Rams Head Coach Wade Lawson said: "We expect Game 2 to be just as close. Our next game may come down to the seventh inning also, and we may need a Game 3 to decide this series. Powdrill pitched well for us today. We knew when the game got close to the end, it was going to be his game to go the distance."
On Saturday Joaquin dropped Game 2 to Lovelady after trailing 1-0 early, they then maintained a 2-1 lead from the mid-stages of the game until the Lions exploded for six unanswered runs, during the late innings, which gave them a 7-2 win.

In Game 3, again played on Saturday, Joaquin gained an early 2-0 lead but fell to the Lions 9-2. The Lions will now advance to the Regional Semifinal round to face the winner of the Union Grove vs Maud playoff series.

The Joaquin Lady Rams varsity softball team headed to Commerce to face the Harleton Lady Wildcats in a best-of-three-game Regional Semifinal series, last Friday and Saturday.

The Lady Rams fell to Harleton 3-2 in Game 1, and 9-2 in Game 2. Harleton will move on to face the Beckville Lady Bearcats, on May 28, in the Regional Finals, with time and place yet to be determined. 

By Correspondent Sports Writer Ronny Samford