4A State Semifinal: Argyle 9 Abilene Wylie 4

For the second straight year, the Argyle Eagles will play in the 4A state championship. After falling to College Station in dramatic fashion just a year ago, the Eagles will now have their shot at a championship on Thursday evening.

The first few innings of the ballgame saw both pitchers hold each team down. That was until the Wylie Bulldogs put the pressure on in the bottom half of the third inning with a 3-spot.

It all started with a Payton Stokes lead-off single. Stokes and Hedge later scored on a Lane Bourland single to centerfield to give Wylie the 1-0 advantage. An error would eventually allow a third run to come in and give the Bulldogs a somewhat comfortable lead through 3 innings of play.

After falling behind, Argyle was able to cut the deficit to 3-2 in the 4th. Danny Linahan got the Eagles on the board in the inning with a ground out to second base, scoring Cutter McDonald. However, with two outs the Eagles did not stop there as rocket over the center fielder’s head scored Rylan King.

After quickly retiring Wylie in the bottom half of the 4th, Argyle put the game out of reach in the 5th with 7 runs. McDonald (2 RBI double), Balch (1 RBI double), Linaham (1 RBI single), Boyd (2 RBI single), and Green (RBI groundout) all helped pitch in to give the Eagles a commanding lead.

That lead was all that Rixey Boyd would need as he held the Bulldogs at bay the rest of the game until giving up 1 lone run in the 7th. Boyd tossed all 7 innings, giving up 9 hits, 3 earned runs, 1 base on balls, and 4 strikeouts.

Top Hitters:

Wylie

Lane Bourland – 2-4, 1 R, 3 RBI

Payton Stokes – 2-2, 1 R, 1 BB

Argyle

Tanner Boyzuick – 3-4, 1 R

Cutter McDonald – 2-4, 2 R, 2 RBI

Danny Linahan – 1-2, 2 BB, 1 R, 2 RBI

Rixey Boyd – 2-4, 3 RBI

For his performance at the plate along with picking up the win on the mound, Boyd was named the TxHighSchoolBaseball.com player of the game.