AUSTIN — It’s do-or-die time for Reagan.
The Rattlers will play a win-or-go-home Game 3 on Saturday for the Region IV-6A championship after losing to Lake Travis, 7-2, in Game 2 on Friday at Concordia University.
After winning the first game of the series Thursday 3-2 on a walk-off error, Reagan (31-6-1) had trouble producing much offense against Lake Travis senior Kaeden Kent — a Texas A&M signee and the son of former MLB player Jeff Kent — who scattered six hits and struck out six over two different appearances totaling 61/3 innings.
“This was just one of them games,” Reagan coach Chans Chapman said. “Their bottom-of-the-order guys got on base a lot, and you can’t let that happen with the guys they have coming up at the top of their lineup. But that’s why you play three games. (Lake Travis is good), and we knew this wasn’t going to be easy. We didn’t come into this thinking we were going to just walk through this tonight. They have too good a team and we’ll play for it all (Saturday).”
Lake Travis (34-6-3) did all of its scoring over the third and fourth innings.
The Cavaliers scored four runs in the bottom of the third, loading the bases on singles by Daniel Ripple and Ethan Calder and a walk to David Ripple before Cole Johnson ripped a two-run single to center.
Kent’s sacrifice bunt and Dylan Schlotterback’s single put the Cavs ahead 4-0.
Reagan produced its two runs in the fourth.
Brennan Greer doubled and Luke Sasser singled to open the inning. Andrew Ermis then brought home Greer with a hit to right.
Following Jacob King’s sacrifice bunt, Sasser scored on Britton Moore’s groundout.
Ashton Beaird walked and stole second to put runners in scoring position with two outs, but Lake Travis reliever Omar Gonzales came on and ended the inning by drawing a groundout.
The Cavs answered by putting three more runs across in their half of the inning.
Daniel Ripple and David Ripple both singled, then advanced a base on a double steal.
Ethan Calder’s bunt single scored Daniel Ripple, with Johnson getting hit by a pitch to load the bases before Kent smacked a two-run single to right.
Teagan Peeples, Greer and Sasser drew walks to load the bases with one out for Reagan in the fifth, but Kent re-entered the game and produced a strikeout and a flyout to get out of the jam.
Game 3 is at 6 p.m. at the NEISD Sports Complex, and Chapman said the message to his team is simple.
“You’ve got to lay it all on the line,” he said. “There isn’t a, ‘We’ll get them next time,’ — you’ve got to win or the season’s over.”
