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Ben Bolt catcher Nick Ramirez loses control of the ball as Shiner's Ky Sandelovic
slides safely into home during Thursday night's regional semifinal game at
the Mule Yard at Alamo Heights in San Antonio.
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photos by Angeli Wright, Victoria Advocate
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SAN ANTONIO - Shiner coach Daniel Boedeker is a disciple of Yogi Berra, and the
Comanches have seen why the last three weeks.
Boedeker stresses the importance of playing to the last out, and Shiner took that
message to heart in its Class 1A area and regional quarterfinal series, winning the
decisive game in its last at bat.
But the Comanches almost had the rug pulled from underneath them on Thursday night at
the Mule Yard.
Shiner took a six-run lead to the bottom of the seventh inning before escaping with
an 11-9 win over Ben Bolt in Game 1 of the best-of-three regional semifinal series.
The Comanches improved to 26-7 and will look to wrap up the series when the teams
return to the Mule Yard for Game 2 on Saturday at 2 p.m. Game 3, if necessary, will
follow Game 2.
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Shiner's Joey Gamez throws a pitch during Thursday night's game against Ben Bolt.
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"We got the big lead and you could just tell the sense of urgency wasn't there
anymore," Boedeker said. "We found out that if you let it go it can come back and
haunt you. We were lucky to come out of here with a win."
Shiner had only four hits but was within two outs of winning via the 10-run mercy
rule in the fifth inning before the Badgers (24-11) began to chip away. Ben Bolt had
the potential winning run at the plate when the game ended.
"We kind of relaxed and thought we had it made," said Shiner starting pitcher Joey
Gamez. "We should have kept battling because like our coach was telling us it's not
over until the last out is made. We should have kept focus and seized the opportunity
when we had it but we didn't."
Gamez had three of Shiner's hits, but it hardly seemed to matter as the Comanches had
a 5-0 lead without a hit.
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Ben Bolt catcher Nick Ramirez loses control of the ball as Shiner's
Coy Boedeker, right, slides safely into home plate while stealing
the base during Ky Sandelovic's, left, at bat.
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The Badgers were handing out favors with walks, errors and hit Shiner leadoff hitter
Blaine Caka three times.
"I don't know if I've seen that," Gamez said. "It's been close. It hasn't been quite
like that. That's another thing we've got to do, we've got to get the sticks rolling
on Saturday. A lot of those were because of errors that they made and we were able to
take advantage of it. We can't always bank on that. We've got to make sure our bats
are going good."
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Shiner's Brady Cejka, left, and Wesley Patek, right, are too late in
tagging out Ben Bolt's Emmitt Salinas as he slides into second base.
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Gamez worked into the sixth inning before being relieved being relieved by freshman
Jacob Stafford. Ky Sandolovic came on to face three batters in the 7th.
"Joey just wasn't real sharp tonight," Boedeker said. "He was working behind hitters,
he wasn't hitting his spots early so he had to battle from behind in the count where
he had to challenge them and I think that hurt him a little bit."
But Boedeker was happy to be going home with a win.
"When you get into this type of playoff game, you scratch for every run," Boedeker
said.
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Shiner's Brady Cejka makes a quick throw to second
to attempt to tag out the runner.
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Class 1A Regional Semifinal
Shiner vs. Ben Bolt
Best-of-three at San Antonio Alamo Heights
Game 1, Shiner 11, Ben Bolt 9; Game 2, Saturday, 2:00 p.m., Game 3, to follow if necessary.
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Class 1A Regional Semifinal
Game 1
Shiner 11, Ben Bolt 9
Shiner 123 401 0 - 11 4 4
Ben Bolt 000 021 6 - 9 8 5
Joey Gamez, Jacob Stafford (6), Ky Sandelovic (7) and Cuatro Rankin.
Sebi Palacios, Robert Guzman (3) and Nick Ramirez.
W: Gamez (10-3). L: Palacios.
Highlights: (S) Gamez 3 for 4, Sandelovic 1 for 2, RBI.
(BB) Guzman 2 for 5, 3B, 2 RBIs; Gilbert Garcia 2 for 5, 2 2B.
Records: Shiner 26-7; Ben Bolt 24-11.
Note: Shiner leads series 1-0.
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BaerCom - Shiner, Texas 2011