Nixon-Smiley loses in district title game

POTH — Last season the Nixon-Smiley Mustangs didn’t have much to play for in their District 27-3A finale. On Tuesday, the team had a shot at a district title.

After seven innings with no errors and aggressive base running, the Mustangs were unable to get to the top of the standings, losing to newly crowned district champs in Poth, 4-2.

“This was district championship, everybody played well, both teams played well,” Mustangs’ head coach Bobby Newman said. “Somebody’s got to lose and unfortunately tonight it was us.”

“[Poth was] better tonight. It was a good game. That’s what I was telling the kids. They’re sad and hanging their heads but you couldn’t have done anything more than you did.”

Both pitchers played well in Tuesday’s bout as Nixon-Smiley trotted out Jordan Van Auken for the complete game while Poth sent out Gunner Semlinger.

Early on the Mustangs had a tough time getting hits off of Semlinger, with batter striking out four times in the first two innings. Down at the bottom of the lineup, Jason Yell became the one to get things going.

At the top of the third on a 2-1 pitch, Yell blasted the ball to the left field fence for a standup double. Genaro Vasquez came in as a courtesy runner for the catcher and immediately stole third with the next at bat. The steal came in handy as Colby Newman had a sacrifice fly ball to left field, bringing in Vasquez on the RBI to give the Mustangs their first score.

With two outs on the board, Devin Hester hit a single and again the Mustangs were aggressive, with Hester stealing second. He was brought home on an RBI single by Van Auken to go up 2-0 in the game. The Mustangs successfully stole seven bases in the game.

“[Stealing] is something we do,” Newman explained. “I think we had 11 stolen bases the last game we played. We got pretty good speed from 1-9. If you can steal a base, why put your hitter in a position to where he’s just giving himself up bunting. We can get him over there and then go from there, that’s just the way we’re going to play, that’s just the way we played.”

The bats came alive in that third inning as Poth answered with four hits of their own, scoring three runs to go up 3-2. Despite the tough inning, Van Auken bounced back, allowing just two more hits in the last three innings and one run.

“I thought [Van Auken] competed well,” Newman said of his pitcher’s outing. “It looked like he had some of his velocity back. The last couple of games it looked like his velocity was down a little bit. He’s had a full seven day, even longer than that about a week and a half now, so his arm is rested a little bit, we’ll get him some rest and get him some ice and get him ready to go next week.”

Van Auken ended the night striking out three, giving up six hits and four earned runs with no walks.

At the plate, the Mustangs were only able to get one more hit in the last four innings. Semlinger finished the night with 14 strikeouts, giving up five hits and two earned runs.

“We made plays,” Newman said, “we put balls in play, [Semlinger] is a good pitcher. When we went up 2-0 we had a good pitcher on the mound too. I’d take our chances. Didn’t work out tonight, that’s all right.”

The loss dropped Nixon-Smiley to 9-3, third place in district. Poth (11-1) takes the top spot while Luling (10-2) stays at second place.

Even with the loss, Newman was pleased with the efforts of his team.

“The couple games before I felt like we didn’t play our best and that’s what I told our kids tonight,” Newman explained. “Win or lose, we want to feel good about how we play when this game is over with. We want to be confident going in and I think we accomplished that.”

Newman did warn that just getting into postseason play isn’t going to be enough for the Mustangs.

“We got to fight with being satisfied just getting in and realize that everybody starts new and let’s go try to win this thing if we can,” he said. “That’s what I want to see, I want to see us compete. I want us to have fun, I want to see us enjoy it but I want to see us compete, that’s the most important thing right now. I think it’ll set a tone going into football next year, the whole athletic year next year. Because we’re going to have the same kids, we’ll have the same kids next year. Hopefully we’ll set a tone and get it done”

Nixon-Smiley is slated to take on Industrial in the bi-district round next week though a date and a site has not yet been announced. Meanwhile, the Mustangs will host a non-district game today at home against Natalia as a warm-up game before the playoffs begin. First pitch is scheduled at 7 p.m.