Leps Survive Wild Monday Doubleheader to Grab District Runner-Up Spot

Before the La Grange baseball team could clinch the runner-up spot in District 20-4A with two wins Monday, they first had to get on the field to do so – and that proved to be almost more difficult than any opponent.

La Grange was heading into their regular season finale scheduled for last Friday at Leopard Stadium needing a win that night against Austin LBJ and a Smithville loss to Giddings to move into a tie for second.

But Mother Nature had other plans.

Both those games were washed out. Friday night the Leps headed west to Wimberley to play LBJ in dry conditions.

“It was nice all the way to Wimberley and then when we got there the bottom dropped out. And we probably would have played in the rain, but the lightning was the issue,” said La Grange head coach Robert Barber.

They never played a pitch in Wimberley, and came all the way back to La Grange.

The teams couldn’t finalize anything on Saturday.

Finally La Grange and LBJ agreed to play Monday at 4 p.m. in Thorndale, near enough to where the Leps had arranged to play Smithville in that potential tiebreaker Monday night in Georgetown.

So the Leps survived a closer than expected challenge against LBJ Monday afternoon, winning 1-0 as Chase Krnavek pitched six shutout innings, followed by one scoreless inning of relief by Kaleb Pyle.

La Grange’s lone run came in the fifth when Wyatt Wick scored on a double by Braeden Wilder.

Ryder Imhoff had three hits in that game.

La Grange had beaten LBJ 21-1 three weeks prior.

“We kind of expected LBJ to go out there and roll over and they didn’t do that,” said senior Colby Spann.

“That’s why you enjoy wins because they are hard to come by no matter who you are playing,” Barber said. “We had a talk right before we got on the bus (to go play Smithville) and I told the guys we’ve got 30 minutes to change our mindset, change our energy level, and the kids came out and played great.”

The Leps then went out and beat Smithville 9-0.

“We just couldn’t let the way we played in the first one get in the way of the second game,” said senior Braeden Wilder.

The bottom of the La Grange order got the offense started for the Leps against the Tigers and they never looked back.

Pitcher Wyatt Wick was efficient, needing just 64 pitches through six shutout innings. That efficiency was important, because that low pitch count won’t limit him in this weekend’s playoff series.

“Wyatt was fantastic and the defense made some great plays behind him,” Barber said.

Imhoff had two more hits in that game, including a double and two RBIs.

Clay Wolff also drove in two.

Wick hit a triple and Brendan Maddox and Kadyn Hall hit doubles.

Cameron Kruse had two hits and scored twice. Bennett Barber had a hit, a run scored and an RBI. Now the Leps turn their attention to best-of-three playoff opponent Salado, which has a 15-14 record.

Game 1 is at 7 p.m. in Salado.

Game 2 is at 2 p.m. in La Grange with a third game to follow Game 2 if necessary.

“Salado’s traditionally good. They have good pitching. They are playing good baseball at the right time,” Barber said. “We just need to bring that same energy and fire we had against Smithville when we play Salado.”

La Grange (15-11) is trying to win its first baseball playoff series since its state title season of 2013.

“We’ve been together a long time, we know what we’re capable of,” Pyle said.

“We’re super hungry, we’ve been waiting for this moment for a while, we want to bring a playoff win back to La Grange,” Wick said.