10-6A Baseball: Tyler Legacy outlasts Longview, 11-7

Published 7:34 pm Monday, April 7, 2025

Tyler Legacy scored a season-high eight runs in the first inning to take a 11-7 win over Longview in District 10-6A baseball action Monday at Mike Carter Field.

The teams were originally supposed to play Friday — three days after Longview’s 7-3 home victory over the Red Raiders — but after waiting for more than three hours on Friday a little longer on Saturday, the game was ultimately postponed to Monday due to inclement weather.

“We had a gameplan going in there to get him out early and make those other guys beat up,” Tyler Legacy head coach VJ Bunner said. “We had a great first inning, putting eight runs on the board, and we needed all of them. It’s something we’ve got to work on, kind of smelling blood in the water, and when we have a team down, we can’t let them crawl back into the game. But all in all, we got the win, and that’s what we came here to do.”

Longview got the first two batters on base in the top of the first inning, but Calvin Rippy got Drew Flores to pop out to foul territory and then struck out the next two batters to end the frame.

Despite a leadoff walk to Garner McKinney in the bottom of the first, Longview starting pitcher Kieffer Doxey had a chance to retire the Red Raiders in order, but what looked to be an inning-ending double play with one out ended up an error with no outs being recorded. That began a string of nine consecutive batters reaching base for Legacy.

Doxey faced six batters and allowed just one hit — an RBI single by Cale Zips — with three walks. Houston Rowe took over on the mound and faced five batters without recording an out. An Owen Harrison three-run double was followed by walks to McKinney and Payne Hotman to end Rowe’s time on the mound.

Payton Woods then came on to pitch and gave up an RBI sacrifice fly to Simeon Garner before getting Zips to pop out to end the inning with Legacy leading 8-0.

Woods pitched 4.2 innings and allowed two runs on four hits with two strikeouts and two walks.

Longview was held without a baserunner in the second and third innings.

The Red Raiders didn’t have a baserunner in the second and had two in scoring position in the third but couldn’t get another run. Legacy also had a runner in scoring position in the bottom of the fifth, but Woods once again got out of the inning.

The Lobos got on the board in the fourth inning when Javarey Valentine hit an RBI triple with two outs and then scored on a wild pitch to cut the score to 8-2. Longview cut the score to 8-3 in the top of the fifth with an RBI groundout by Doxey to score Dameion Kennedy, who led off the inning with a double. The Lobos loaded the bases, and Bryson Denning hit a frozen rope to left field, but a diving grab by McKinney ended the threat.

Legacy picked up two runs in the fifth inning with a sacrifice fly by McKinney and a double off of the wall by Garner to push the score to 10-3.

The Lobos scored twice in the top of the sixth. Valentine led off with a double, and Woods followed with an RBI triple before scoring on a wild pitch to trim the score to 10-5.

The Red Raiders added a run in the bottom of the sixth when McKinney was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to make the score 11-5.

Longview scored two more in the seventh with an RBI single by Woods and an error.

McKinney had a double and reached base four times, now reaching base in all 22 games this season. Noah Felton had two singles. Zips, Garner, Nolan Hable, Cole Kimmel and Harrison all had a hit.

Rippy allowed three runs on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks in five innings. It was the first earned run allowed by Rippy in district play. Kimmel and Hable pitched in the sixth and seventh innings for the Red Raiders. Hable struck out four batters.

Roman Guidry and Evan Wagner pitched in the sixth inning for the Lobos with Wagner striking out both batters he faced.

Drew Flores, Valentine and Woods led Longview with two hits apiece.

“This one was big to split with them and now we kind of control our own destiny,” Bunner said. “It’s a big week. We have Rockwall, and they’re a powerhouse for a reason. We have a good ball club too, and I promise we won’t be scared tomorrow. It’s about coming out here, executing, do what we have to do and hopefully come up with another win.”

Legacy (12-11, 4-4) will host Rockwall on Tuesday. Longview (6-14, 2-4) will play at Rockwall-Heath.

Tyler fell to Mount Pleasant 13-1 on Monday in Mount Pleasant. The Lions will play Marshall at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday before the Red Raiders game.