Throughout the last three seasons, the Collinsville baseball team found ways to score once reaching base.
But Ropes had other ideas last week. The Eagles limited the two-time defending State champion Pirates to a total of seven hits in a two-game sweep May 27 and 28 at Abilene Christian
University by scores of 4-2 and 4-3.
Collinsville ended the season 24-6. Ropes faced Burton for the Class 2A-Division II State championship game at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock.
GAME ONE
ROPES 4, COLLINSVILLE 2
Eagles pitching limited the Pirates to three hits in a State semifinal series-opening 4-2 victory May 27. Ropes also scored three runs in the first two innings and never looked back.
The Eagles used a single and an error to score once in the bottom of the first and three singles and a sacrifice fly to score twice in the second. Collinsville got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth when Peyton Davidson hit a leadoff single and scored on an error.
Davidson hit a one-out double and scored on a single from Jaxon Spivey in the top of the sixth to trim the Ropes’ lead to 3-2. But the Eagles used two errors and two hit batsmen to add a run in the bottom of the sixth before retiring the side in the top of the seventh.
Davidson (2-3, 2B) led the Pirates at the plate. Spivey, who pitched six innings and took the loss on the mound, was 1-for-3 with an RBI.
GAME TWO
ROPES 4, COLLINSVILLE 3
Collinsville left 11 baserunners stranded and gave up two runs each in the first and fifth innings in a season-ending 4-3 loss May 28. The Pirates, who led 3-2 after one inning of play, gave up two runs on an error, two walks and a single in the top of the fifth.
Ropes took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on a two-run home run. But Collinsville took advantage of three errors and three walks to seize a 3-2 lead.
Paxton Davidson and Caysen Schafer each scored on an error and Rider Patterson drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk to give the Pirates their only lead of the series. Neither team scored again until the top of the fifth.
Collinsville had two runners on base in the second, fourth and seventh innings, but was unable to get them across the plate. Schafer (1-2, BB, HBP), Paxton Davidson (1-3, SAC), Peyton Davidson (1-4) and Nate Hicks (1-4) had hits for the Pirates.
The May 28 contest was the final high school game for four Collinsville seniors. They were Hicks, Brandon Cantu, Peyton Davidson and Cooper McMillan.