EMORY – Deuce Ervin went 3-for-4, scoring a couple of runs, and Chase Hampton scattered five hits as Kilgore opened the area round of the UIL baseball playoffs with an 8-1 decision over Wills Point on Friday evening.
Game 2 of this best-of-three series resumes here at Wildcat Stadium, beginning at 1 p.m., today. If a third game is necessary, it will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 2.
The Bulldogs (25-5) scored two unearned runs in the top of the second inning and never looked back, adding two in the fifth and four in the seventh.
Kilgore finished with eight hits. Connor Martin followed Ervin’s three with a couple of those, while Gus Witt, Khalon Clayton and Hampton provided one each.
Witt’s bases-loaded three-run triple in the seventh stretched the Bulldogs’ advantage to 7-0. The Kilgore shortstop then crossed on a passed ball before Wills Point reliever Colby Stone, who came in with his team trailing 4-0 to start the seventh, could retire the side.
Hampton struck out seven and walked two in going the distance for his 10th win of the season.
Sam Berberich, the Tigers’ starting pitcher, allowed four runs on six hits. He struck out three and walked four in six innings, taking the loss.
Aaron Hardman, Derek Wimberly, Gentry Stevens, Seth Wilson and Jaden Newton provided the Wildcats with hits.
Wills Point threatened with baserunners reaching second or third base in the second-, third- and fourth-innings, but Hampton pitched around the difficulty, and the Bulldogs did not make an error.
The Tigers (18-10-1) only run came with two outs in the seventh inning. After coaxing a walk from the Kilgore right-hander, Wimberly scored on Newton’s double to the gap in left-centerfield.
Kilgore left five on base, while Wills Point stranded four. The Tigers committed four errors, three of those led to two Kilgore runs in the second inning.
