By LARRY BOWEN
CHINA SPRING — Maybe it shouldn’t have been surprising that China Spring arrived ready for the baseball playoffs, but how the College Station team showed up was shocking.
Playing perhaps its worst mental game of the season, top-ranked College Station wobbled to a 10-5 loss in the opener of its best-of-3 Class 3A bi-district series at Cougar Field on Thursday night.
Nine walks, two errors and a lack of clutch hitting pushed College Station within one loss of an early end to a highly anticipated campaign in which it held the No. 1 ranking throughout the regular season.
The series will shift to College Station on Friday, with Game 2 scheduled for 5:30 p.m. College Station (24-5) must win that matchup and the game that would follow in order to avoid being eliminated by China Spring for a second consecutive year.
“I thought we lost our heads a little bit early in the game,” College Station coach Scott Holder said. “We panicked and weren’t able to recover after that. This is about as bad as we’ve played all year from a mental standpoint.
“The good thing is we’ve got a chance to come back tomorrow and play better baseball. I doubt very seriously we’ll handle ourselves like that again.”
Holder won a coin flip last week and chose a best-of-3 series instead of the one-game playoff China Spring coach Shane Keeton wanted.
China Spring (19-18) finished fourth in District 17-3A and arrived at the postseason with none of the fanfare accorded the talented young College Station team, which has six players already committed to sign with Division I schools.
“Every year at this time, that’s the team that shows up,” Keeton said. “Something clicks with these kids from China Spring in the playoffs.”
Senior pitcher and leadoff batter Tucker Johnson symbolized China Spring’s playoff transformation after going 1-4 on the mound in district play and 4-5 overall. Johnson limited College Station to three runs and three hits through six innings before wobbling a bit in the seventh. He also slugged a home run to spark China Spring’s five-run third inning.
“Tucker Johnson is a fierce competitor on the mound,” Holder said. “He gave them a big spark with the home run, and after that they just competed. We got out-competed tonight.”
College Station nicked Johnson for two runs in the top of the third but could have scored more after loading the bases to start the inning. Whatever momentum the visitors had slipped away in the bottom of the frame as China Spring grabbed a 5-2 lead.
An error and a bunt single that found a gap in the defense added fuel to the spark supplied by Johnson’s homer. Sophomore pitcher Kyle Richardson issued two walks during the inning, including one with the bases loaded, and No. 7 hitter Jackson McMullen cashed in with a two-run single.
Texas A&M commit Richardson (4-2) allowed six runs (four earned) in 4 2/3 innings. China Spring hurt him with a couple of infield bleeders and a bloop double, but much of the damage was self-inflicted because of seven walks and a hit batter.
“It was a very uncharacteristic night for Kyle,” Holder said. “He’s still young, and he’s got to learn from it. We’ve got to take care of business tomorrow and give him another opportunity.”
After China Spring secured the lead, the home team kept applying pressure. Two successful suicide squeeze bunts produced runs, including one in a four-run sixth that stretched the lead to 10-3.
Reserve Jake Georgiades delivered an RBI double as College Station scored twice in the seventh, but McMullen replaced Johnson and retired the last two batters.
Jaxxon Grisham and Ryan Johnson both went 2 for 3, but College Station’s other starters went 0 for 18.
China Spring 10, College Station 5
College Station 002 010 2 — 5 5 2
China Spring 005 014 x — 10 9 2
Tucker Johnson, Jackson McMullen (7) and Will Gupton. Kyle Richardson, Walker Davis (5), Matthew Bennett (6) and Baylor Rowlett. W — Johnson, 5-5. L — Richardson, 4-2. 2B — College Station: Jake Georgiades; China Spring: Johnson, Brett Cain, Blake Mathis. HR — China Spring: Johnson. Records: China Spring 19-10, College Station 24-5. Time: 2:03.