On Tuesday the Allen Eagles baseball team took on the district leading Hebron Hawks who came in with a record of 20-5 and Allen came in sitting at 13 and 11. Victory would not come easy on this night though, as Allen would be facing pitcher Zach Deloach of Hebron who is one of the best pitchers in Texas high school baseball; the Texas A&M commit is an All-American and one of the nation’s top 100 recruits.

The first two innings of the game were slow, both teams couldn’t get the bats going and Allen failed to get a hit in the first or second inning. Hebron got on the board first with a RBI single in the top of the third inning to take the early 1-0 lead. In the the bottom half of that same inning though Allen broke through on a two run inside the park home run by Junior third basemen Dylan Ditzenburger that put the Eagles on top 2-1 heading into the 4th inning.

“At first I thought it was going to get caught so I did not sprint right away,” Ditzenburger said. “But when I saw it fall I knew I could get to third and when the catcher overthrew third base I knew I could score.”

Allen faced a tough situation in the top of the 4th as Junior starting pitcher Cole Maxwell had gotten himself in a two out bases loaded jam but the Eagles escaped and held on to the lead. Maxwell would be replaced by Aaron Stramel on the mound in the 5th inning, Maxwell pitched four innings and gave up only one run on four hits in a solid outing. Stramel shut down the Hawks putting down the first 6 batters he faced and on a squeeze bunt single by Justin Wicker in the bottom of the 6th the Eagles extended their lead to 3-1.

All Allen needed was three outs to win in the top of the 7th inning but Strammel would struggle allowing two men to score and Hebron had the game knotted up 3-3 and it was headed to extra innings. In the top of the 8th the Hawks had Allen on their heels with two men in scoring position with only one out but the Eagles survived on back to back groundball outs. In the bottom of the 8th Allen got two guys on to second and third base after a couple hits and a wild pitch by a now fatigued Deloach and with one out Cole Maxwell came up to the plate and hit a sacrifice fly ball to left field to bring in the winning run as Allen took the game 4-3.

“I knew there was one out and all I was just telling myself was to put the ball in play,” Maxwell said. “I just wanted to score the runner [from third] and I did and we won the game.”

Allen now has three games left this season and are holding on to playoff aspirations, the next game they play is Friday against the Hawks again but this time in Hebron. The Eagles have won their last two games and look to continue to ride the wave of this momentum into a possible postseason birth.

    “We need to continue to battle one pitch at a time,” Coach Coe said. “Play catch, control what we can and pitch to contact.”