London Advances to Second Straight State Championship Game with 4-1 Win over Gunter

Gunter vs London

London showed why they belong in the State Playoffs today with a dominating performance from Kade Budd and timely hitting sending Gunter home with a 4-1 win.

Game 1 of the State Semifinals at Dell Diamond featured last year’s State Runner-up, #6 ranked C.C. London Pirates against the #2 Ranked Gunter Tigers. Both teams would start their aces. L.HP Kade Budd (9-2) for London and LHP Issac Vilanueva (13-1) for Gunter.

London opened up the scoring after Vilanueva walked Kade Budd and Mason Jacob,.  There were 2 outs when Landon Salinas popped up to 3^rd base but it was dropped and Budd came around to score. Gunter did not respond in the bottom half of the first and went 3 up 3 down. In the top of the 3^rd, Budd walked and Jayden Martinez lined a triple to the right field corner scoring Budd to take a 2-0 lead. Then Gunter turned a rare double play when Salinas sac bunted back to the pitcher only to have Martinez thrown out at home, then Salinas thought he had been called out and walked toward the dugout only to be tagged out by the first baseman Landon Salinas for out #3. Gunter scored their run in the bottom of the third when Cooper Wade singled and Mason Sadler tripled to right field for the RBI. That would end the scoring for Gunter, making the score 2-1 London heading to the top of the 4^th.

In the top of the fifth, Villanueva struck the first two hitters but then walked the next two. That’s when 5- hole hitter Landon Salinas shot a single to left field scoring Mason Jacob. In the top of the sixth, Villanueva walked his seventh batter on the day, and was replaced by Cade Dodson. Dodson got out of the inning with a pair of ground outs. Kade Budd finished the bottom of the 6^th with 2 strikeouts and a fly out to center field. Going into the 7^th, London was leading 3-1. With one out, Jayden Martinez hit a shot to left field for a stand up double the Landon Salinas followed with a single to left field to score Martinez. Kade Budd shut the door in the bottom of the seventh after giving up a couple of singles he got Cooper Wade to ground out for the final out.

Kade Budd was the dominant pitcher today going 7 innings with just 93 pitches. “I knew after 5 pitches that all of my stuff was working,” Budd explained.  “It doesn’t always happen like that.  But today, I knew quickly I was going to have good stuff out there on the mound.”  Budd scattered 6 hits with no walks and 8 strikeouts. He is the THSB Player of the Game.

Catcher Jayden Martinez supplied most of the fire-power needed with double, triple and an RBI.

London will face the winner of the afternoon game between Brock and Diboll tomorrow at Dell Diamond.