Leps Baseball Heads to Third Round of Playoffs For First Time Since 2013 Title Year

Gillum Homers; Heroic Relief by Freshman Ulrich

For the first time since 2013 (the last time the Leps won a state baseball title) the La Grange baseball team is headed to the third round of the playoffs.

The Leps survived numerous weather delays and a pair of elimination games to beat Burnet in a best of three series Friday and Saturday in Hutto.

The Leps lost Game 1 by a 4-3 score but bounced back to win a Saturday doubleheader 7-4 and 3-2. Those victories vault the Leps (16-13) into the regional semifinals where they will face Bridge City (22-6-1).

In Game 1 the Leps jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning but never scored again to fall 4-3. Ty Stark pitched five innings of four-run ball in that game before Bradyn Prasek pitched two scoreless innings of relief. Oliver Gunn had two hits and two RBIs in that game. Stark hit a triple and scored. Max Dixon hit a double and Kyler Lamza drove in a run.

In Game 2, sophomore Eli Gillum hit a three-run homer that proved to be the difference. Hunter Sabo also drove in three runs and had two hits, including a double. Max Dixon had two hits and scored two runs. Braxton Dahse pitched 6.2 innings of four-run ball and Stark pitched the final out in relief.

In the decisive Game 3, Prasek pitched three innings of two-run ball before freshman Tristan Ulrich hurled four scoreless, hitless innings of relief to secure the 3-2 victory. The Leps only managed three hits themselves in that game (by Dixon, Gillum and Dalton Janacek) and scored all three of their runs in the third inning to rally from a 2-0 deficit.

In that fateful third inning, Janacek reached on an error, Stark walked and then Dixon doubled them both home. Dixon was eventually thrown out trying to score on a bunt by Kyler Lamza. But Lamza reached and advanced to second on the throw home, and later scored what would rpove to be the winning run on an error by Burnet.