5A Division II State Championship

In what seemed more like a boxing match in the first 3 1/2 innings with the two opponents exchanging blows, Grapevine prevailed with the final blows, scoring the last 5 runs of the game and coming away with a 9-5 win and the first 5A Division II State Championship. It was Grapevine’s second consecutive state championship.

Grapevine started the game off with a run in the top of the 1st. Jarret Boswell got on via a fielder’s choice and moved to second after Lale Esquivel was hit by a pitch. Gianni Corral came up and singled to center field, scoring Boswell on the play, giving Grapevine the early 1-0 lead.

But Kingwood Park responded with two runs in the bottom half of the first. Kevin Rios got on board after being hit by a pitch and went to 2B on a Nathan Eveler walk. Griffin Resendez singled to load the bases. Rios scored on an Aden Murray ground out for the first run in the inning. Nicholas Slonaker singled home the second run, scoring courtesy runner Dylahn Bodkin. Kingwood Park had a 2-1 lead after 1 inning.

Grapevine’s bats were hot in the top of the 2nd. They had 6 hits with RBI singles from Luke Esquivel, Zack Goldstein and Jarret Boswell to make it a 4-2 Grapevine lead.

But once again, Kingwood Park responded in their half of the inning. They took advantage of three walks and picked up two runs on Resendez single to tie the game at 4-4. Kingwood Park took the lead back in the bottom of the 3rd when Nicholas Slonaker scored on a Blake Heckman ground ball. They led 5-4 after 3 innings.

The scoring barrage continued in the top of the 4th. Brady Boozer led off the inning with a double and later scored on a Zack Goldstein Sac Fly. Then with runners on 2nd and 3rd, Corral hit a single through the right side of the infield that scored Luke Esquivel. Boswell scored the 3rd run of the inning on a double steal to give Grapevine a 7-5 lead after 3 1/2 innings.

After several scoreless innings, Grapevine was able to pick up a couple of more runs in the top of the 7th. Connor Ray singled with one out scoring Colin Park. Ray later scored on a wild pitch giving Grapevine a 9-5 lead heading to the bottom of the 7th.

Relief pitcher Benjamin Chen had been able to keep Kingwood Park off the scoreboard for four innings but several times he had to get out of situations with runners in scoring position. But he only gave up 1 hit and 0 runs through his 4 innings of pitching. Chen started the 7th inning but Sam DuRard came in to get the final outs.

Chen officially pitched 4 innings giving up 0 runs on just 1 hit with 1 strikeout. He was named the championship game MVP. “At the end of the season, we thought we had all the pieces to do this again,” Chen commented. “But it’s all about teamwork. This was only my second relief of the season and it was super hot out there so I just had to bear down and adjust. This team will go down in history as the last 5A single champion and the first 5A Division 2 champion.”

Coach Jimmy Webster had these comments on the game: “I’m proud to do this for the city and for the school. I am unbelievably happy for our offense. We kind of put ourselves in trouble on defense with a lot of free bases and we kept answering offensively. I was proud of that. Chen got himself into jams and got himself out of jams. Bottom line is that he put up zeros.”