All the way to State
Cypress Ranch advances to State behind power performance by Thompson
OUSTON - RBI hits from Colton Cowser and Westley Shields backed the one hit, 13 strikeout performance of Matt Thompson as Cy Ranch punched their ticket to Austin with a 7-0 win over Cy Fair on Saturday night.
The pivotal game three victory came one night after Cy Fair forced the deciding game with a 5-3 win moving the Mustangs one step closer to a 2018 Class 6A Texas high school baseball title.
Through two innings, Cy Fair starter Rhett McCaffety matched Thompson pitch for pitch before the wheels began to fall off in the third. With one out and one on, McCaffety issued the second of his four walks in the inning setting the stage for Cowser.
The Sam Houston BearKat commit hit a 2-2 offering from McCaffety to the base of the right field wall scoring Shields and Scotty Scott. Cowser would later score on a wild pitch and Cy Ranch led 3-0 after three.
“They beat me with two fastballs and then he dropped the foul pop and I knew I had a second chance,” said Cowser following the game. “I got to 2-2 and I knew he was going to throw me a fastball and I just sat on it and the rest is history.”
Cowser finished the night 1 for three with two RBI’s and a run scored and the series with a .444 average and 5 RBI’s.
Cy Ranch was far from done though as they chased McCaffety in the fourth plating another run on an RBI hit by Shields.
Meanwhile Thompson had Cy Fair swinging and missing more times than they cared to count. The junior right-hander recorded nine of his 13 punches on a swinging third strike. The Texas A&M commit reached his pitch limit with two outs in the seventh and was replaced by reliever Kyle Gough who struck out Tyler Ashy to end the game.
“It starts on the mound,” said second year head coach Corey Cephus. “Thompson was dominant tonight. He had pinpoint accuracy all night.”
The Mustangs put the finishing touches on their 32nd win of the season with a three run sixth. This time it was Fabian Mayfield and Shields doing the damage. Mayfield doubled home Cy Ranch’s fifth run of the night before Shields rifled a 0-1 pitch into rightfield scoring Mayfield and Brandon Griffin.
The win marked the eighth time in 11 postseason games that Cy Ranch had scored at least seven runs and the victory gave them their third shutout of the playoffs.
Cy Ranch (32-8-2) moves to within two games of claiming its third Class 6A baseball title since winning it all in 2012 and 2015. The Mustangs will face Carroll (33-6) in the state semi-final game on Thursday.
