Posted: Sun, 31 May 2009 08:48 PM - 8,978 Readers

By: Stuart Duncan

Let the games between No. 1 Moody and No. 2 Calallen begin.

The much anticipated Class 4A baseball playoff series between the top two Class 4A teams in the state will take place later this week, after Calallen outlasted No. 3 Lake Travis, 10-4 Saturday night in the third and decisive game of their best-of-3 Region IV-4A semifinal series at Wildcat Stadium. Lake Travis won Game 2 of the series, 7-3 Saturday afternoon, while Calallen took the opener, 5-3 Friday night in Austin.

The defending 4A state champion Wildcats (34-3 overall) will play the Trojans (34-2) for the Regional IV-4A championship later this week. Moody defeated Calallen, 7-4 in a non-district game at Whataburger Field earlier this season.

“This is a sweet victory and we’re happy to be where we’re at. Moody will be gunning for us and we’ll be gunning for them,” said Wildcats coach Steve Chapman, whose team didn’t even know if it would get to defend its state title until the UIL ruled unanimously Wednesday that a Calallen senior baseball player didn’t move from Riviera into the Calallen school district for athletic purposes. “We’re going to have to play well throughout (to beat them) because you can’t have any bad games when you're playing Moody.”

“We’re looking forward to playing them. It is one of the premier matchups in the state and so may the best team win and represents Region IV at the state tournament,” said Bryden McClure, who had three hits in the doubleheader Saturday and was one of 10 Wildcats seniors who graduated Saturday.

Calallen was pushed to the brink Saturday after Lake Travis (31-5) handed the Wildcats their first home loss in three years in Game 2 of the series.

The Wildcats responded by scoring four runs in both the first and fifth innings and they used senior left-handed pitcher and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi signee Adam Hoelscher’s (4-0) strong effort to take the finale.

Hoelscher, who hadn’t pitched in 18 games and was given the game ball by his team afterward, went 4.1 innings, yielded four runs on three hits and had four key strikeouts. Relievers Nick Guinn and Jordan John combined to pitch the final 2.2 innings of the game for Calallen. John, the Wildcats’ ace who signed to play with the University of Oklahoma next season, pitched the last two innings and struck out three to close it out.

Calallen needed just two hits to take a 4-0 first-inning lead in Game 3. The Wildcats forged ahead when Jacob Hubert slid hard into second base on a fielder’s choice ground ball, which knocked down Cavaliers infielder Kevin Conroy on the play, allowing Matthew Garza (who was 2 for 3 in the game with a stolen base and three runs scored) to score. Dustin Vaughan (who was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded), Bryden McClure (who drew a bases loaded walk) and Hunter Whetsel (who had an infield single) also drove in runs for the Wildcats in the frame to stake them to lead.

Wyatt Mathisen drove in Roland Resendez on a fielder’s choice ground ball in the second inning to push Calallen’s lead to 5-0.

Lake Travis threatened in the bottom of that inning, as it loaded the bases with two outs before Hoelscher struck out the final batter of the frame on an offspeed pitch to get out of it.

“I was proud of our kids for the way they played tonight --- we had our opportunities,” Cavaliers coach Roy Kinnan said. “If we could have gotten one or two hits with the bases loaded tonight it could’ve been a different (game).”

Cohl Walla’s — who signed to play baseball next season with the University of Texas — third-inning sacrifice fly brought the Cavaliers within 5-1, before Hoelscher avoided further trouble by striking out the final batter of the frame to strand a runner on first base.

Hoelscher also stranded a runner on third base in the fourth inning by getting the final three batters of that frame on two strikeouts and a line out to the second baseman Garza.

The Wildcats added four unearned runs in the fifth inning to take a 9-1 lead. Garza tripled with two outs before scoring on a Lake Travis fielding error.

*  Story Contributed by: Stuart Duncan