EDITOR'S NOTE: Updates with Kilgore's win over Henderson on Friday.
Kilgore High School’s baseball team has won five straight games, three of them in District 15-4A, where the Bulldogs are undefeated.
And Cade Cox? Well, he’s got a moment to remember.
In the Bulldogs’ most recent little “anxiety party” at Driller Park on Friday, in a scoreless game with rival Henderson, Cox delivered the game-winning RBI, plating teammate Todd House to put the Diamond ‘Dogs in front for the 1-0 win, Kilgore’s fifth in a row since the Whataburger Oil Belt Classic.
District 15-4A currently has a pair of teams ranked in the top 10 in the state, and Kilgore isn’t one of them.
At this rate, that may change.
Kilgore dealt Gilmer a 10-1 loss on its own field Tuesday, and after the close win over Henderson, coach Jake Atchley’s team of hungry Bulldogs are now 3-0 in 15-4A play.
This coming week, Kilgore is on the road on Tuesday for a pair of district games: they’ll play at state-ranked Carthage on Tuesday, and then host Spring Hill, also state-ranked, on Friday, both set for 7 p.m. starts, and when “state-ranked” is referenced, that’s according to the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association’s polls.
Against Henderson, Jason Silvey went 2-for-3 with two stolen bases. House had a pair of hits and had the only run scored. Oh, and Cox had that little game-winning RBI to beat the Lions, that he’ll likely remember the rest of his life.
Tanner Beets got the complete-game win on the mound, striking out five and allowing four hits.
In the win at Gilmer on Tuesday, House was a double-beast: at the plate and on the mound.
House went 3-for-4 at the plate with a double, and had a stolen base. On the mound, House threw six innings of solid ball. He gave up just the one run on four hits and had three strikeouts. Colt Bullard came on in relief and threw an inning.
Kilgore had nine hits, and House and Kolton Hale had six of them. Hale went 3-for-3 and also had a walk, and scored twice. Silvey had a hit and two RBI, and four stolen bases; Tate Truman, who has been on a tear, had a hit and another RBI – Truman has had 11 RBI in the last four games; and Joseph Hendrickson had a hit and 2 RBI. Tanner Beets also had an RBI. Kilgore scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth, and that blew the game open, then scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth to put the game away.
Gilmer’s Dillon Henson took the loss on the mound.
As mentioned, since the Whataburger Oil Belt Classic ended, Kilgore is 4-0, having beaten Center to open district play last Tuesday, and then grabbing a pair of impressive wins in a tournament in Mount Pleasant last Friday before beating Gilmer and now Henderson.
The Bulldogs are 9-4 on the season to date.
