Chaps can’t get past Mavs

Westlake tried to will itself to a third game in the bidistrict series against McNeil but came up just short in a 2-1 loss Friday night.
The Chaps got stellar pitching from senior Lewis Guilbeau from the get-go in Game 2 Friday following a Game 1 loss to McNeil (23-8), as the Texas State-signee didn’t allow a hit until the sixth inning, but the Chaps (24-8-1) bats couldn’t capitalize on numerous chances with runners in scoring position in the season-ending affair.
“Tonight we played really well, except for a couple instances,” coach Jim Darilek said. “But in the playoffs you’ve got to really play well all the time because everyone is going to be good in the playoffs.”
Following a sloppy Game 1 in which Westlake showed some of its postseason inexperience early, the Chaps bounced back and were solid in all phases in Game 2 except for a couple of plays.
“Tonight we played a great game, it came down to right there at the end and they came out just a little bit more lucky,” senior shortstop Hayden Ross said. “I really think we played a lot better than we were initially in the season. We came out with 24 wins, that’s a pretty good season and I think the juniors really stepped up this year.”
Ross, Guilbeau and Carson Viglione are the senior starters moving on from the squad after helping Westlake reach the postseason, along with netting Darilek’s 500th career victory earlier in the season.
“This team honestly, way exceeded my expectations,” Darilek said. “We had a lot of guys play a lot better than I thought they could. I knew we were going to be thin pitching, we just didn’t have a lot of quality pitchers, we had a lot of guys do a good job we just didn’t have a lot of arms and that kind of hurts you because you can wear people out over the course of a season if you don’t have a lot of deep pitching.”
Westlake had a runner on second base in each of the first three innings before finally breaking through on a Ross RBI single in the fifth inning to score Alex Cabezas, who started the frame with a single.
McNeil finally got a hit with a leadoff double to start the sixth inning, and after the runner advanced to third a sac-fly made it a 1-1 tie.
In the bottom of the sixth Carson Viglione started things with a single and moved to second on a fielder’s choice, but he was stranded at second base to end the inning.
Then, McNeil pushed across the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh with some bad luck for Westlake.
A one-out walk put one runner on but Guilbeau followed that with a strikeout to make it two down. The righty hurler buckled down and got his third strikeout of the inning on a nice pitch in the dirt, but the pitch bounced in the dirt and scooted away from catcher Zach Suarez to allow the runner to reach first base and extend the inning.
The next hitter barely got enough of a pitch to send a single to the right side that just barely eluded the glove of diving first baseman Viglione to allow the runner to score for a 2-1 Mavs lead, with a runner thrown out at third trying to advance to end the frame.
The Chaps went down in order in the seventh.
“That was real unfortunate because we’re out of the inning and come back with momentum, it would have been a lot different probably if we make that play,” Darilek said. “Yesterday we were real nervous, there’s only two of these guys that have ever been in a playoff game before.”
A mostly young squad, the Chaps came out with some jitters in the first game before rebounding somewhat in a 9-3 Game 1 defeat.
In Game 2 Friday, Westlake was on the verge of breaking the game open but left a man stranded on second base in three different innings before finally bringing home a runner from second in the fifth.
“We were a good team, we were a pretty relaxed team, never really got uptight,” Ross said. “We had some goofy guys who kept it loose and everything, it was a fun season. I’m not going to regret it at all.
Along with Guilbeau, Ross and Viglione, the Chaps will also see seniors Daniel Gremaud, Chase Huebinger, Sean LaBaw, Frankie Hernandez, Cameron Bishop, Corbin Benavides, Jack Jones and John Covelli move on from the squad.