By DAVID CAMPBELL
HUMBLE — Good-bye, Blake Gould. Hello, win column.
Holt Van Etten and Willy Amador blasted mammoth home runs off relief pitchers after Kingwood pulled its starter Gould, and the Bryan Vikings rolled to an 8-1 victory in Game 1 of their Class 5A best-of-3 bi-district series Thursday at Andy Wells Field.
Gould did not give up a Bryan hit through four innings but departed after walking Nick Tepera to lead off the fifth. Jeremy Pfuntner had a one-out hit, then Van Etten cranked a three-run homer well over the right field fence to open the game’s scoring. It was Van Etten’s first career homer.
“I was just trying to hit something solid, hit it on the ground or a high pop fly to get the run from third in,” said Van Etten, who ripped into the second pitch thrown by junior right-hander Taylor Battle. “It felt amazing. I have never hit one in high school before.”
Bryan added five more runs an inning later, getting a prodigious shot to left for a grand slam by winning pitcher Willy Amador.
“I was sitting dead red fastball and just put all my body into it and just got hold of it,” Amador said. “It went out. It went far.”
Amador’s slam came off Kingwood’s fourth pitcher of the night and one batter after Van Etten drew a bases-loaded walk to give Bryan a 4-0 lead.
It was a quick spin to success for the Vikings, who were held in check early by Kingwood’s southpaw starter. Gould, whose back-door curveball kept Bryan’s hitters off-stride, had five strikeout but walked six.
“We felt like we should have hit [Gould], but he was conveniently wild,” Bryan coach David Powers said. “He walked some, and we really didn’t get good pitches to hit. We have won so many games that were close late like that that we don’t panic. We didn’t feel bad, other than we had no hits on the board for a while. That ended in a hurry.”
Amador gave Gould his due.
“I wasn’t really seeing the ball, and he shut me down a couple of times, which showed with the strikeouts,” said Amador, who fanned twice against his opposing starter. “But when they made the pitching change, we took advantage and picked up some runs on them.”
Bryan (17-9-1) and Kingwood (16-11-2) will play Game 2 at Viking Field at 7 p.m. Friday. If Kingwood forces a Game 3, it will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at The Woodlands Christian.
Amador, who struck out nine and walked three, allowed two hits and an unearned run in his six innings. That run came after Bryan had built its 8-0 advantage. Chris Ferrara walked, stole second and scored on the Vikings’ only error, a dropped ball in center field on Monroe Moll’s deep drive.
“I like their mound and was pitching pretty well, but kept leaving it up and they were fouling it off,” Amador said. “They are good hitters but we came out and showed up better. We were ready to play.”
Prior to the run, only Frankie Silha got as far as second against Amador. Silha led off the game with a single, but Amador later picked him off second to escape any trouble.
Josh Gere singled off Bryan reliever Trevor Russ in the seventh for the third and final hit for the Mustangs.
Bryan had five hits, but theirs traveled much farther.
“Willy was hitting bombs left and right yesterday in practice, so why not?” Powers said.
Bryan 8, Kingwood 1
Bryan 000 035 0 — 8 5 1
Kingwood 000 001 0 — 1 3 1
Willy Amador, Trevor Russ (7) and Brandon Kveton. Blake Gould, Trent Stilwell (5), Taylor Battle (5), Grant Adams (6) and Sam Wheatley. W — Amador. L — Gould.