The top third of the Bearcat batting order was lethal against Lavaca in a 12-0 District 3A-4 tournament semifinal win Thursday night in Lavaca.
Three hitter Jace Washburn was 4-for-4 and reached base in his fifth plate appearance via a walk. Washburn had two doubles and also drove in three runs in the third win of the week for the Bearcats (14-7).
Dylan Todd was 3-for-5 in the two spot, including a second inning solo home run, his first of the year, and he drove in two.
Leadoff hitter Rhett Nietert started the game with a line drive single for what would be his only hit of the day, but he would later drive in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Where Nietert (shown) ultimately made a difference was on the mound, where he threw only 59 pitches over a six inning complete game. Nietert (4-2) did not walk a batter, allowed six hits, and struck out four.
After Nietert singled to open the game he was sent to third on a double by Washburn. Casey Carter followed with an RBI single, Hayden Daniel bunted a run in and a Sadler Miller (2-for-3) made it 3-0 with a double.
Todd hit his home run out to left an inning later and it was 4-0.
Washburn singled home two in the fourth, one of the four Golden Arrow errors allowed another run to score, and a Parker Smith sacrifice fly pushed the lead to 8-0.
Washburn singled in the fifth and when the ball got away from the outfielder Clint Osborne, who had reached on an error, came all the away around from first to score and it was 9-0.
Lavaca’s most serious scoring threat was extinguished in the bottom of the fifth when, with runners at second and third, Nietert picked off the runner at second to end the inning.
The Bearcats hit the run-rule threshold in the sixth when Osborne singled off the pitcher’s glover to score one, Nietert lifted a sacrifice fly and Todd drove in a run with his third hit to make it 12-0.
The win moves the Bearcats into the finals against Charleston, who beat Paris 10-5 in the first semifinal game. The first pitch is set for 6 p.m. tonight.
Charleston won the regular season game 12-4 on April 11.
BEARCATS BATTER LAVACA IN DISTRICT SEMIFINALS
