photography by Deborah Cannon
Lake Travis didn't need a rally on Friday night.
A night after rallying from a six-run deficit, Lake Travis shut down McCallum and found some offense in the fourth and fifth innings of a 7-0 playoff victory, completing its bidistrict sweep of the District 26-4A champions .
"We just knew coming in that we were at our ballpark and we had to put them away," said junior Ryne Martinez, whose team posted a 9-8 victory on Thursday. "It took us four innings but when we jumped on them, we jumped on them ."
Jeff Henley held Lake Travis to just an infield single over the first three innings, but the Cavaliers got to the Knights' starter in the fourth inning. Lake Travis recorded five hits and four runs in the inning and had seven of its eight batters reach base. McCallum — which hit a batter in the inning and had a one-out error — was able to minimize some of the damage as catcher Colton Lusson threw out a baserunner trying to steal and tagged a runner out at home for the inning's second out.
Lake Travis added three runs in the fifth inning, but the four-run outburst in the fourth gave Derek Stevens a big enough cushion on the scoreboard. Stevens, a junior left-hander who entered the playoffs with a 5-1 record and a 0.58 ERA, gave up no hits over the final three innings and allowed only a hit batsman in the sixth inning. He only had to throw 30 pitches over the final three innings.
"I think he did real well," Lake Travis catcher Konner Frazier said. "He hit his spots."
Lake Travis was led offensively by Martinez's two RBIs, and the Cavaliers collected four extra-base hits. The Cavaliers (24-12), who advanced to the regional finals last season, will play Hays or Uvalde in the playoffs' second round.
Lusson had two of McCallum's four hits on Friday. Twenty-four hours after building an 8-2 lead over Lake Travis, the Knights (19-9) were unable to find the same offensive success against Stevens.
"I was worried that we were going to be down," McCallum coach Russell Houston said. "I have a great group of kids and they played their tails off tonight."
