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Sunnyvale blanks Gunter to take opener in 2A baseball series
By DEVIN HASSON, dhasson@starlocalnews.com
MCKINNEY—It was shaping up to be one of those nights for Sunnyvale.
The Raiders were ripping line drive after line drive only to find those balls find a home in the gloves of Gunter fielders, who turned in several sparkling defensive plays.
Finally, Zach Metzger hit a blast that the Tigers could do nothing about.
Sunnyvale (28-4) will have a chance to close out the series when the teams meet on Saturday at 5 p.m. at McKinney Boyd. Game three, if necessary, is scheduled to take place after the second game.
Metzger had a hand in all three of the Raiders’ scoring rallies, but none was bigger than the home run in the fourth. After Connor Nash had a base hit taken away by a leaping grab by the Gunter second baseman, Metzger blasted a pitch over the wall in left field to give his team a 1-0 lead.
In the sixth, Nash singled to right and Metzger was issued an intentional walk, moving Nash into scoring position. Brock Taylor made the Tigers pay when he lined a single to right to score a run that made it 2-0.
Sunnyvale tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh. Will Moss was able to beat out a double play ball to allow Devin DeLeon to score and after Moss stole second, Nash followed with a RBI single to push the advantage to 4-0.
That would be plenty for Wilcox, who pitched around a one-out walk in the bottom of the inning to retire the side and complete the shutout.
While Wilcox, who improved to 9-0 on the season, gave up only one hit, he did have some anxious moments.
He retired the side in order in the first inning and got past a leadoff walk in the second but faced trouble in the bottom of the third, when he hit a batter and then issued two walks to load the bases with two outs.
But Wilcox bore down, striking out Richie Robledo to escape the jam unscathed.
Gunter got a double—its lone hit of the game—from Hunter Williams in the fifth, but Wilcox struck out the next two hitters to strand him at second.
Wilcox then issued a leadoff walk in the sixth that was erased when Nash turned a 4-3 double play.
Sunnyvale seemed snake-bit in the early innings. Nash was hit by a pitch with one out in the top of the first, but was doubled off when Metzger’s screaming liner was snagged by the third baseman.
In the top of the third, DeLeon doubled but Moss’ liner to deep left was flagged down and Gunter was again able to get the runner pushing forward for the double play.
But the Raiders finally cashed in on a hard-hit ball in the fourth when Metzger left the yard and they never looked back.
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