By David Jenkins
Staff Writer
MOUNT PLEASANT – The combination of miscues and missed scoring opportunities proved to be too hard to overcome.
Farmersville fell 6-0 and 3-2 to New Boston in an area round best-of-three series at Chapel Hill High School.
“It just comes down to the fact that we didn’t score enough runs,” head coach Jon Nordin said. “We didn’t hit the ball that good in both games. We did pitch good which kept us in the game. Bottom line is we just made too many mistakes. You cant do that and expect to win.”
New Boston (12-5) advances to the regional quarterfinals against state-ranked Edgewood (25-5) in a best-of-three series at Northeast Texas Community College in Mount Pleasant.
The Farmers finished the 2015 season 19-7 overall and District 13-3A champions at 9-1.
They captured the bi-district title following a sweep of Mineola.
Below is a breakdown of how the game played out at Mount Pleasant.
Game 1
Farmersville got things going in the bottom of the first inning with Darrin Pennington doubling to center field and Cole Anderson hitting one back of the middle.
Following a fly out, Lyle Hibbits was hit by a pitch, which moved over Pennington (third base) and Anderson (second).
New Boston got out of the inning with a double play, after a line drive was caught and the third out was made at third base.
The Lions went up 3-0 at end of the top of the third inning on a ground out, double and error in the outfield.
They scored three more runs in the fifth (one) and sixth (three) innings.
New Boston finished with eight hits with two of those going for doubles.
Farmersville totaled four hits, left 10 runners on base and had a pair of errors in the field.
Top hitters were Pennington (double), Anderson, C.J. Hibbits and Chandler Norman (each had a hit).
Lyle Hibbits took the loss after going six innings, giving up five earned runs, walking two and striking out eight.
Norman pitched the final frame and struck out one.
Game 2
Farmersville looked to strike first in the top of the first, with one out, Jason Luke walked and stole second.
He was left there as the next two Farmers struck out.
In the top half of the next frame, (C.J.) Hibbits walked and two batters later scored to make it 1-0 on a misplayed ball at first base.
On that play Anderson reached base and moved on to third.
Farmer starting pitcher Chase Hacker was on point over the first three innings.
He recorded four strikeouts and allowed just two hits.
The offense gave the sophomore a two-run lead at the end of the top of the fourth frame.
With two outs, Anderson singled past the short stop and moved to second on a Kalon Johnson (hitting for Jarod Davidson) hit by pitch.
Anderson went to third on a passed ball with Johnson advancing one base.
Norman delivered a run-scoring single to bring home Anderson for a two-run lead.
New Boston got things going in the bottom of the fourth with a misplayed ball at second and two batters later scored on a sacrifice fly.
Farmersville had runners on first and second in the following inning, but they were unable to score.
The Lions tied the game up and took a 3-2 lead in the bottom half of the fifth.
With one out, the next two batters reached on a hit by pitch and a misplayed ball in the outfield.
The next batter tripled to centerfield for a 3-2 lead after five innings.
Farmersville went down one, two, three in the next inning.
New Boston did the same.
With out on the board in the top of the seventh inning, Luke was hit by a pitch.
The next two batters flew out and grounded out to wrap up the season.
The Farmers totaled three hits coming in the form of singles from Hacker, Anderson and Norman.
They left eight runners on base.
On the mound, Hacker went the distance gave up four hits, walked one and struck out seven.
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