Sunday, April 28, 1996

Cooper wins District 4-5A baseball title

By LANCE FLEMING
Sports Writer

Cory Aldridge was simply looking to get a rally started.

What he did was put an end to a season-long battle for the District 4-5A baseball title.

Aldridge crushed a two-out home run in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday to give Cooper a 6-5 win over Midland Lee at Cougar Field and the district championship. The victory in the district playoff game gives Cooper its ninth district baseball title since 1984 and its first since 1993.

The Cougars (20-9) now get the bye week that goes to the district champion .

Midland Lee, meanwhile, will face Plainview in the bi-district round this weekend. The Bulldogs finished third in District 3-5A. The times and dates for that series haven't been determined.

The district's top two seedings were still very much up in the air after Lee scored twice in the sixth to tie the game at 5-5. Lee relief pitcher Mike Hale, who retired 11 of 12 Cooper hitters from the end of the fourth to the bottom of the seventh, set down the first two Cougars he faced in the bottom of the seventh, and it looked like the contest would go to extra innings.

But Aldridge stepped up and launched a hanging curveball to right field that cut through the crosswind and sent a dagger straight through the Rebels' collective heart.

"I just wanted to hit the ball," Aldridge said. "With two outs I just had to get on base and get something started."

His bomb ended a three-week race that had seen the Cougars lead the district, fall into a tie, fall back to second place and finally earn a spot in the playoff game on the season's final day.

The homer was also strangely reminiscent of the 1993 district playoff game between these two teams that was won by Cooper on a throwing error in the bottom of the seventh.

And for Lee head coach Jesse Benavidez, the outcomes are getting more than a little tiresome.

"That's the worst way to lose a game," he said of the home run. "Losing like this in the last inning is getting a little bit old. We're all in shock. When he (Aldridge) hit it, I was hoping the wind would catch it and hold it up. He looked like he was focused on getting one good swing just to see what would happen."

What had happened up to that point of the game was what one would expect in a championship-type game: good pitching, solid defense and timely rallies.

Cooper got on the board first, scoring three runs on a pair of hits in the first inning. The big blow was an RBI triple by Miles Durham that scored Kyle Wellhausen. John David Estes followed with a single over the drawn-in infield, and Craft Hughes later added a sacrifice fly.

Lee, though, bounced back with a run in the second and then two more in the third to tie the game at 3-3.

Britt Harper scored to make it 3-2 on a Mark Holly RBI single, and then Matt Withrow scored on a Kyle Frush error at second base to tie the game.

Cooper had a chance to get a run in the second until Hale's left foot got in the way of a Michael Anderson line drive. The ball, which was headed for center field and would have scored Clete Seyle for a 4-1 CHS lead, drilled Hale in the foot and dropped about 10 feet from the mound. Hale calmly picked it up and threw out Anderson. Durham then grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.
But the Cougars got the lead back in the bottom of the fourth, scoring twice to break the 3-3 deadlock.

Wellhausen's triple to the gap in right-center field drove in courtesy runner Shannon Nix and Seyle to give Cooper a two-run cushion.

Darin Janssen took over for Kristian Allen on the mound to start the sixth, but immediately got into trouble, hitting Chad Crow and then letting him get to second when his pickoff throw sailed wide of first baseman Michael Anderson.

Then with one out, Harper drilled a 1-1 pitch over the fence in left field to tie the game at 5-5.
That took the decision away from Allen, who had pitched well through the first five innings. He gave up seven hits and three runs, but only one was earned and he struck out six Rebels.

"Kristian battled like crazy," Cooper coach Jim Mavroulis said. "He put us in a spot going to the sixth where we should have won it without Cory's home run. Darin wasn't as intense as he should have been when he got in the game. I think he's had so much success against Lee that he thought he would roll through them."

By this time, though, it was Hale who was rolling. He came on in relief of starter Randy Forman with one out and three runs already on the board in the first inning. He got the Rebels out of the inning without any further damage, and pitched well the rest of the way.
The lanky junior scattered six hits, walked one and struck out five.

"Hale came in and did a great job," Mavroulis said. "He's a little different than some of their other guys because he can throw it a little bit harder. Sometimes those big, tall lanky guys give you a little bit more trouble."

But Aldridge had no trouble in the seventh.

Well, other than trying to get around the bases.

"I didn't really know it was a home run until I rounded the bag at first base and heard everybody yelling," he said. "The main thing I was worried about was getting around the bases. I didn't want to trip and fall. But this is the greatest feeling I've ever had."