Posted: Sat, 21 May 2011 01:49 PM - 10,064 Readers

By: Danny Davis

For the second straight day, Lake Travis came up one run short in the seventh inning.

Boerne Champion reliever Blake Allemand struck out Grant Gibbs with a runner on second base to preserve the Chargers' 7-6 victory in the third and decisive game of a regional quarterfinal series. The loss came a day after Lake Travis dropped an 8-7 game in Boerne.

Champion opened the game with back-to-back singles but Lake Travis starter Corey Weston retired the next three batters to end the inning. With one out in the second inning, however, the Chargers got six straight runners on base and built a 5-0 lead.

Champion recorded five singles in the inning and Allemand drew a one-out walk.

"As hitters, you've got to hit mistakes, and they hit mistakes," Lake Travis coach Roy Kinnan said.

Lake Travis clawed back into the game with two runs in the bottom of the second, and RBI doubles from Jacob Sexton and Gibbs cut Champion's lead to one in the fourth inning.

But Champion quickly stretched its lead back to three runs. With one out in the fifth , Josh Holcomb got aboard on a two-base error, and Cody Mallory scored him on an RBI single.

One out later, Mallory scored from third base on a balk after reliever Colby Fussell dropped the baseball while on the pitching rubber.

Gibbs clubbed a home run over the right-field fence to lead off the sixth and with two outs in the seventh, an RBI single from Sexton got Lake Travis within one run. Sexton was replaced by pinch runner TJ Keel and Gibbs went to bat representing the potential game-winning run.

Allemand, who started at shortstop but was moved to the pitcher's mound midway through the fourth inning, opened Gibbs' at-bat with a strike, and he then got a checked-swing strike on a ball in the dirt.

Keel took second base on the checked swing but Allemand struck out Gibbs on the next pitch.

"I went up there and I got a little overanxious and it really kind of bit me in the butt," Gibbs said. "I was definitely hoping that I could get in that situation to get a nice base knock and get the run in to tie the game up.

"That's the way baseball goes. You get them some days and some days you don't get them."

The Cavaliers finished their season with a 27-14 record.

The Central Texas area will have no active Class 5A and 4A teams when the fourth round of the state playoffs begins . Salado, La Grange, Cameron Yoe and Johnson City are the local teams left standing.

*  Story Contributed by: Danny Davis