Blake Watters' gem, timely hitting push London baseball back to regional finals

SAN ANTONIO — London baseball players and coaches knew they might have a nail biter at some point in the playoffs.

Through three rounds and one game of the fourth round, the Pirates have been dominant, scoring 79 runs in seven games. Saturday afternoon in Game 2 of a Class 3A regional semifinal series, Columbus left-handed pitcher Kaleb Kuhn made the Pirates work for their runs and sweat a little bit. Luckily for London, Blake Watters was better on the mound, shutting down the Cardinals with an impressive outing in a 3-0 victory.

Watters threw the complete game shutout, giving up three hits with nine strikeouts and retiring 17 straight Columbus batters before the Cardinals started the seventh with two hits. He worked out of the jam to earn the win and secure the Pirates a spot in the regional finals for the fourth straight season.

Kuhn, meanwhile, mixed in a curve ball with a well-placed fastball to keep the powerful London lineup relatively in check through his start as he allowed three runs on four hits. It was a little bit of a wake up call for a squad that had been rolling through the playoffs on a mission to return to the state tournament, but Watters' performance shows their playoff experience matters.

"Yes and no (on it being a wake up call), we knew what to expect with this pitcher, he's been dominating all year, I think the kid had like eight shutouts in a row so we knew it was going to take a little small ball, some execution get some runners over and get some timely hits," London co-head coach Kevin Carr said. "We knew if we got a couple runs, we trust our pitching, our defense to keep us in the game."

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Breaking through in the second

The Pirates left two runners on in scoring position in the first inning as Kuhn struck out Landon Salinas and Christian Olivares to end the threat. London broke through with two runs in the second, scoring on an error and the other on a sacrifice fly by RJ Olivares. Aiden Salinas plated another run with an RBI double in the fourth, but that was all the Pirates could muster against Kuhn during the game.

Kuhn finished the day with eight strikeouts and three walks, two in the first inning.

"It was kind of what we were expecting, a lot of fastball, a lot of curve ball, change up, sort of mixing it up and we knew we had to go the other way with our approach," said Henry Sepulveda, who had two of London's four hits in the game. "We had a set plan, and I think that plan worked out pretty good."

Watters' stellar throughout

Watters started the first by facing two base runners, but he worked out of it and then started to roll. He retired 17 straight batters from the first through the sixth innings. The run ended when he gave up a double and single to start the seventh. But a fielder's choice, fly out and strikeout completed the shutout.

"I really didn't stress because of my teammates, you know I have a good defense behind me and it's kind of going and attack hitters," Watters said. "And not getting behind in counts and letting my stuff work."

Up next

London will take on Falfurrias, a 9-5 winner in a one-game playoff against Vanderbilt Industrial, at a time, date and place to be determined in an all District 30-3A Region IV-3A final.

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: London baseball's stellar pitching, timely hitting push it to regional final