AUSTIN — Bowie’s batters forced Bastrop head coach Mark Williams to dig deep into his bullpen, but it didn’t help.
The rabid Bulldogs’ offense pounded on the Bears pitching staff for an 8-2 matinee win Thursday at the Burger Sports Complex in Austin.
Keagan Johnson started the afternoon on top of the pitcher’s mound.
Early on in the contest two Bulldog runners on base would pick up steals, but didn’t translate into early runs. The steals did cause Johnson to become a little uneasy as he would develop a need to check his runners throughout the evening.
Bastrop would draw first blood against the Bulldogs midway through the beginning of the second inning when Bastrop’s Michael Hancock hit a ball deep into right field to bring home the Bears first run.
Bowie would soon retaliate in the bottom of the inning after a costly error on an attempt to catch Bowie’s  Matthew Morgan stealing.
Kevin Mayo would hit an RBI-double down the right field line to bring in Morgan.
Bowie would come at Bastrop again soon after that first strike
Zach Grant deftly connected with a down-the-middle fast ball that sailed over the left field wall for a two-run homerun, leaving the score at 3-1.
Williams called a timeout, but Bowie would continue to show Johnson no mercy and scored two more runs in the inning to lead 5-1 after two.
The next two innings would be a defensive battle between the two teams.
In the top of the fifth, Bastrop was able to get on the scoreboard when Cade Staton slammed an RBI-single into right field to move the score 5-2 in favor of the bulldogs.
In the bottom of the fifth, Bastrop’s Johnson was retired from the mound and replaced by Joey Muehr, after Bowie increased its lead to four runs.
Muehr’s time on the mound was short lived when Austin Hughes took over.
Hughes’ first at bat led to Zach Grant knocking in two runs with a double to set the score at 8-2.

— Marcus Vela