Play Ball! The Texas Collegiate League opened the 2007 season tonight to launch the fourth year of exsistance. The Roughnecks represent for the first time in Wichita Falls and Mineral Wells steam over the defending champ Marshals.
WICHITA FALLS 6, DUNCANVILLE 3
The Wichita Falls Roughnecks opened their inaugural Texas Collegiate League season the right way with a 6-2 victory over the Duncanville Deputies Tuesday night at Hoskins Field. The Roughnecks (1-0) moved to Wichita Falls from Graham after last season.
Wichita Falls shortstop John Dao (Fort Worth/Northeast Texas CC) led the Roughnecks at the plate with a pair of doubles, scoring two runs and driving in one. Third baseman Jason Seefeld (Clovis, N.M./Texas Tech) collected a pair of RBI in the contest as well. Hometown standout Chase Anderson (Wichita Falls/North Central Texas CC) starred on the mound, striking out nine of the 11 Duncanville batters he faced and allowing two walks. The starting pitcher, he did not get the win because of only pitching three innings.
Duncanville (0-1) got a pair of hits from centerfielder Blake Amador (UNLV), while first baseman Dominic Tognietti (Texas-Pan American) chalked up two RBI.
The Roughneck's Brett Holland (Lindale/Texas-Tyler), one of six Wichita Falls pitchers, got the win. The Deputies Jimmy Raviele (Houston) was tagged with the loss after allowing three runs, all earned, on three hits in four innings.
Wichita Falls is in action again Thursday at Denton, while Duncanville hosts Denton on Wednesday.
MINERAL WELLS 14, MCKINNEY 2
James Oliver scattered three hits over seven innings as the Mineral Wells Steam opened the 2007 season by rolling the visiting McKinney Marshals 14-2 Tuesday night at Pratt Field.
Oliver, a right-hander out of the University of Alabama-Birmingham, struck out four of the first five batters he faced en route to retiring
the first nine Marshals on the night. He gave up both of McKinney’s runs in the top of the fourth inning before tossing three more
scoreless innings to get his first win of the season.
Anthony Moore and Brice Cutspec both scored three times each as the Steam were aided by five McKinney errors in the field. Designated hitter Josh Vander Hey went 3-for-3 with a walk and came across twice for Mineral Wells.
The Steam gave Oliver plenty of run support as they pushed across five runs in the bottom of the third. They batted around as Vander Hey highlighted the inning with a double of the wall in left center that chased McKinney starter Drew Zizinia after just two-and two-thirds innings. Kevin Bedford proceeded to hit an RBI single off of reliever Daniel Meadows before Trent Blanchard reached on a throwing error that allowed two more Steam to come across.
Zizinia took the loss for McKinney after giving up four runs and three walks while striking out just one batter. Meadows followed and didn’t fare any better against the hot bats of the Steam as he allowed five runs in just two-and-one-third innings of relief. Mark McCain and Kevin Aduddell each pitched an inning of scoreless ball before Clark Jackson gave up five more Steam runs in the eighth inning. It was the second time that the Steam batted around in an inning for the game.
Steam righties Brett Lester and Tyson Bagley each pitched one inning of scoreless relief to close out the night.
DENTON 6, WEATHERFORD 3
Opening night for the Wranglers (0-1) was a tough one as they dropped game one of 2007 by a count of 6-3 to the visiting Denton Outlaws (1-0). The game was tight all the way until the 9th inning as
Denton managed 3 runs with two outs in the inning. Jeremy Gould had the hot bat for
Denton going 2-5 with 3 runs driven in. Second baseman Tyler Ladendorf also contributed two hits in the Outlaw win. For Weatherford DH Trey Crain and 2B Buck Britton both had a pair of hits in the loss.
Denton pitcher Kyle Watson (0-1) picks up the win for the Outlaws while reliever Jamison Maj picks up save number one on the season. Wranglers starting pitcher Justin Wells (0-1) takes a tough loss while only giving up three hits and striking out five in four innings of work. The Wrangler defense was a no show committing two costly errors leading to three unearned runs.