Pearland got great defensive plays, excellent pitching and two big runs to beat the defending state champion Flower Mound Jaguars 2-1 and advance to the 6A State Championship game for the second year in a row. They will now face the the winner of the San Antonio Johnson/Tomball game for the 6A State Title Saturday at Dell Diamond.
Pearland scored in the top of the first. Nico Partida hit a hard line drive off Flower Mound 3B Cooper Skinner’s outstretched glove for a double. Courtesy runner Jett Hernandez came in to run for Partida. Damian Landry then laid down a perfect bunt between pitcher and SS for a single and Hernandez advanced to 3B. Brady Brewer came up and singled to centerfield scoring Hernandez as Pearland takes the 1-0 lead.
Pearland picked up another run in the 3rd. Walker Hurst led off the inning with a single to left field. A Partida ground out moved him to 2nd and a Brewer fly ball moved him to 3rd. John Moya then came up and singled to right field scoring Hurst and increasing the Pearland lead to 2-0.
Flower was finally able to get to Pearland pitcher Partida in the bottom of the 6th. With one out Josh Glaser singled to right field. Adrian Rodriguez followed that up with a double that scored pinch runner Takiro Gadt from first. Flower Mound cut Pearland’s lead to 2-1.
But that was it for Flower Mound. In the bottom of the 7th, Partida faced just 3 batters getting 2 fly outs and 1 ground out to secure the win for Flower Mound. Partida went 7 innings giving up just one run on 4 hits with 2 walks and 3 strike outs. He was named the THSB Semifinal Game MVP.
“I knew they were a really good hitting team, 1-9,” Partida explained. “I knew I just needed to keep pounding and let my defense work. The defense made some unbelievable plays today. Jordan Hernandez for that diving play. Damian Landry for a diving play in center and the outfield track down all the balls they needed to. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
“It’s unbelievable to go back-to-back state championship games and my hat is off to these these 27 guys that made this happen,” Head Coach David Rogers explained. “We said earlier that we could give them one and we needed to get two and it played out that way. Nico did an outstanding job on the mound.”
Pearland………..1 0 1 0 0 0 0 – 2 .7. 0
Flower Mound 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 – 1 .4 .0
