Jacks defeat defending 3A State Champion Jasper
By Russell Payne Sports Editor

The Diboll Lumberjacks Baseball team spent their weekend in the Hudson Tournament and had a very strong outing. The tournament was a test on the young season as the Jacks played four games over a two-day period.

The Jacks began play early Friday on a cold and damp Garrison Field in Lufkin. The opening round opponent for the Jacks was the Northeast Christian Academy Warriors out of Kingwood.

Starting the game for Diboll was Joey Solis and after falling behind 1-0 in the first looked to his team to generate some run support.

The Jacks responded by knocking in a run in the first to knot everything up at a run apiece.

Diboll came back to bat in the second after a strong inning of work by Solis to light up the Warriors and capture four more runs in the second taking a 5 - 1 lead.

Diboll would hold off a comeback attempt by the Warriors and finished the game with Alex Gaard giving two strong innings of relief for a 7 - 5 victory.

Solis also came in big with a bat snagging two hits and RBI in the game.

Cutler Ruby had a double while, Gaard hit a double and brought in two runners for the Jacks. Also contributing were Nick Cortines, Cody Stifle and Kyle Prescott.

Next up for the Jacks was a Friday evening contest with the Vidor Pirates.

The Jacks turned to Prescott in this contest and he delivered a big time shutout over the District 22 4A unit 4 - 0.

Prescott went the whole way surrendering a walk, two hits and 7 strikeouts for the Diboll squad.

Prescott also came up big with a bat hitting a double and a single while garnering an RBI. Ruby had a double for the second game in a row, and Ketaurus Stanton added a double for Diboll.

Saturday the Jacks returned to the field for a make-up game after the opening day of the tournament was washed out by rain.

For the Jacks it would be Ruby taking the mound in this contest against the Jasper Bulldogs.

It also happened to be Ruby's 18th birthday and it was both a happy one on and off the mound.

Ruby pitched 4 innings and allowed 4 hits, zero walks, 7 strikeouts and only gave up 2 runs in the affair. He also had a two-run shot over the leftfield wall in the bottom of the first inning.

Gaard came in to relieve Ruby and pitched the last 3 innings surrendering

no hits or walks with some help from the defense.

Jasper had an opportunity to tie the game up a three apiece in the top of the seventh, when the ball was hit to shortstop Prescott who in turn made the game winning throw to Chance Johnson for the last out.

Helping Ruby on the offensive side were Prescott, Solism Stifle and Faustino

Salaiz.

The final contest of the weekend would feature a rematch between the Jacks and Vidor from just the night before.

After three games in just over a 24 hour period the Jacks pitching had to be pread thin, taking three pitchers to finish the contest for Diboll.

Robert Cedillo, Gaard, and Jonathan Fuentes all took to the mound for the Lumberjacks Saturday afternoon.

The Pirates unfortunately took advantage of things and righted their ship from the previous nights two hits, by netting 12 in this contest to beat Diboll 11-2.

Diboll had 7 hits with Stanton leading the way with two. Also contributing for the Jacks were Fuentes, Stifle, Jesus Guerrero, Johnson, and Ruby each having one hit.

The Jacks are now 4 - 1 on the young season and will return to action tomorrow morning when they start play in the Central Tournament this weekend.