Hagen Smith

WHITEHOUSE — Landry Laird made contact on the first pitch of the game for a dribbler to first base.

Two other Sunnyvale Raiders also grounded out.

That was about all they could do against Bullard’s ace left-hander Hagen Smith during Game 1 of a Class 4A area round series Thursday night at the Whitehouse Baseball Complex.

Smith struck out 18 batters and pitched his seventh no-hitter of the season as No. 3 Bullard took a 7-0 win.

“Hagen went out and did his thing and gave us a chance to win,” Bullard head coach Robert Ellis said.

After the leadoff groundout and a walk to Mason Reynolds, Smith struck out the next two batters to get out of the inning.

Matthew Leavitt grounded out to first to start the second inning, and Smith came back with two more strikeouts.

Smith had three strikeouts in each of the next two innings with a two-out hit batsman in the third and a two-out walk in the fourth.

Bullard was unable to get any runs across in the first two innings but sent nine batters to the plate in the bottom of the third.

Gage Wakefield walked, and Connor Carson reached on an error. Ryley Sharp delivered an RBI single. Brandon Taylor drove in a run, and Chase Randall and Bryce Jewell also had RBI singles to give the Panthers a 4-0 lead.

In the fourth, Wakefield was hit by a pitch, and Carson bunted him over. After Ryley Sharp drove Wakefield in with an RBI single, Smith came through with an RBI triple down the line. Courtesy runner Luke Williams ended up coming in to score to make the score 7-0.

“Bunts, move runners and execute,” Ellis said. “People call it small-ball or whatever. Bunt execution is huge. That kind of opened those innings up.”

Smith struck out the side in the fifth. After striking out Laird to start the sixth, Reynolds hit a comebacker to the mound, and Smith made the play for the second out before striking out Alex Luna.

Sunnyvale starting pitcher Jackson Hitt led off the seventh with a walk, but Smith battled back with three more strikeouts to finish off the victory.

“It was really good for us,” Smith said. “It was a good team win. We scored a bunch of runs. It’s good for tomorrow. They have home-field advantage so we needed a good Game 1 win.

“My fastball command and curveball were the main things really. That’s all I threw today. I just toned down my effort a little bit and tried to throw as many strikes as I can.”

Hitt allowed seven runs on seven hits with two strikeouts and five walks in 3.2 innings, throwing 85 pitches. Colby Stone threw the final 2.1 innings for the Raiders (19-10).

Jewell, Sharp and Smith all had two hits for Bullard (26-6).

The Panthers will look to close out the series at 7 p.m. Friday in Rockwall.

“That’s the plan,” Ellis said. “They’re good. They lost the opening game against Van and came back and won a doubleheader the next day. They’re not going to lay down by no means. They’ve got a good ball club, and they’re well-coached.”