Dillos Baseball uses late surge to topple Junction

The San Saba High School varsity baseball team split a pair of District 29-2A games this past week as the Punchers hosted both Mason High School and Junction High School.

San Saba Dillos 1, Mason Punchers 9

The Dillos could not get very much going on offense against stellar pitching from the visiting Punchers on March 29 as San Saba fell 9-1 to Mason.

San Saba would fall behind 6-0 by the top of the fourth inning as Mason managed to score five of its first six runs of the game with two outs. However, the Dillos finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth frame as Lane King smacked a double that scored Weston Oliver for San Saba’s lone run of the contest. The Punchers put the game completely out of reach in the top of the seventh inning with three more insurance runs.

Oliver pitched solid in the loss with nine strikeouts in just 5.0 innings of work. Just two of the six runs he allowed in his start were earned runs, while Reagan Mejia came on two pitch 2.0 innings of relief with three strikeouts.

San Saba Dillos 13, Junction Eagles 4

Despite being down 4-2 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning on Friday night at home vs. Junction, the Dillos’ offense finally got things going with four runs in the fifth and seven more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to rout the visiting Eagles 13-4.

With runners on second and third base, Lance Taylor smacked a sacrifice fly to deep center field that scored Drake Bryant. However, there was an error on the play by Junction that also allowed Oliver to come in and score to tie the game at 4-4. San Saba never looked back from that point on as the offense finally started to click consistently as King’s RBI hit to score Mejia put the Dillos up 5-4 for what ended up being the game-changing hit. King would then score on a wild pitch in the fifth to extend the lead to 6-4.

Junction would continue to unravel as the Eagles’ shaky pitching and defense allowed the Dillos to pour it on with seven runs in the sixth inning.

Taylor got the start and was able to pick up the victory on the mound for the Dillos despite being down 4-2, while Mejia came on in relief again and did not allow a run.

As he has been for a vast majority of the 2022 season, Oliver was superb at the plate for the Dillos as he finished the week a perfect 5-for-5 in two games with a solo home run vs. Junction, a double vs. Mason, four total runs scored, and one run batted in. He was also able to get on base multiple times via walks. Wesley Lackey also drove in two runs against Junction and scored twice.

Be sure to check out next week’s edition of the San Saba News & Star for more updates on Dillos and Lady Dillos varsity athletics. Sports editor Andrew Salmi can be contacted via email at salmi.courier@gmail.com or by cell phone at (818) 645-1115.