Lumberjacks coming off of crucial week of play
By Russell Payne Sports Editor

Lumberjack first baseman Chance Johnson knocks a long ball in the Diboll contest against Hudson Friday night.

The Diboll Lumberjacks took to the road last Tuesday for an important contest against Carthage to take on the Bulldogs. For the Jacks this was the first of two very important games in their quest for a District 20 3-A Title, and a chance to advance to the Class 3A Playoffs.

The Jacks would strike first with a Chance Johnson double to right center that would score Kyle Prescott from second base in the opening inning.

Carthage would come back to score a pair of runs in the second inning to make give them a 2-1 advantage.

The Jacks would not go down as they came back and scored a run in the third inning thanks to the bat of Ketaurus Stanton with a solo home run to left field. The Bulldogs came roaring back though and would score one run in the inning to keep the lead at 3-2.

In the fourth inning with a single up the middle by Jonathon Fuentes allowed for Cutler Ruby to score from second and tie the game back up at three all.

Carthage would not score in the inning keeping the score 3-3 after four innings.

The Jacks swarm home plate to celebrate the long ball Johnson sent sailing out of the ballpark.

However, the Bulldogs would score a run in the fifth and a run in the sixth inning off of a pitcher balk and a wild pitch, to give them a two run lead 5-3.

Showing they were not down and out Diboll got things going in the right direction in the final inning of play.

Stanton drew an impressive walk and followed it up by stealing second base on the first pitch to Prescott.

Prescott would take the next pitch back up the middle to score Stanton from second to make the score 5-4.

With Diboll only down by a run Prescott would advance to second on a Johnson hit to short stop which was missed handled and scored an error by the officials.

The Jacks would have runners at first and second with two outs in the top of the 7th inning and Ruby at the plate. Ruby hit the first pitch deep in the hole between third base and short stop. The Carthage short stop would make the play of the game by digging the ball out of the hole and making a great throw to get Ruby at first and brining the hard fought contest to a close.

The Jacks night would end with a 5-4 score and a pair of runners left on base.

The Lumberjacks got a good outing out of Joey Solis with 2 2/3 innings and allowing three hits, three walks, one strikeout and surrendering three runs, with two earned on the night.

Alek Gaard came in to relieve Solis, pitching 3 1/3 innings while allowing two hits, a pair of walks, three strikeouts, and 2 runs in the game.

Friday night the Jacks would return home for their second huge game of the week with the league leading Hudson Hornets in town for a District 20 3-A showdown.

The Lumberjacks came out

flat and the Hornets took full advantage of the situation, by scoring three runs in the first.

The Jacks would answer with three of their own in the first, but after that the runs would be hard to come by for the Lumberjacks. Hudson on the other hand would have no trouble coming up with run support.

Over the next six innings of play the Hornets would net 12 more runs in the contest

As for the Lumberjacks, they would manage only one more run while leaving 10 runners on base. The Hornets would leave Diboll with a 15-4 win.

Diboll is still in third place, with playoff hopes much alive, while both Crockett and Rusk are two back of the Jacks with only three games remaining.

Diboll is 7-4 in district play.