Sports Texoma

WHITESBORO — An error-plagued Krum defense left the door ajar for Pottsboro, and the Cardinals barged right through — and straight into the playoffs.

The Cardinals scored three runs in the top of the first inning as a result of three costly errors, then rode the coattails of senior right-hander Cory Griffith to a lightning-halted 4-0 victory over the Bobcats in a play-in game for third place in District 10-2A on Friday night.

“We’ve been scoring a lot of runs in the early innings,” Pottsboro head coach Bart Williams said. “In district play we scored about 50 of our runs early. We’ve been looking at what we can do ... and I said let’s keep doing that.”

Pottsboro (16-5) will meet Class 2A No. 8-ranked Peaster in the bi-district round of the Region II playoffs. Krum will stay at home despite a 21-5 final mark.

“Everybody beat up on each other,” Williams said. “This is a real tough district.”

The game had barely completed the official five innings when Whitesboro athletic director Eddie Gill, holding a lightning detector, demanded a halt to the action with nobody out in the top of the sixth inning.

Both teams went to their respective dugouts and fans were encouraged to head for the parking lot. With a line of storms beginning to bear down on Whitesboro, the game was called about 15 minutes later.

Early on, though, in overcast and muggy but otherwise dry conditions, it was Pottsboro which supplied the offensive thunder — with a lot of help from Krum’s defense.

The Bobcats turned a double play on a controversial interference call, but the Cardinals restarted the rally with two out.

Larry Ellis reached on an error and stole second, and Griffith was intentionally walked. Both runners moved up to second and third on a double steal.

Then a ground ball to short off the bat of Brian Dunkle was thrown wildly to first, allowing Ellis and Griffith to score easily. Tyler McAlister, the designated hitter, followed with a line RBI single to right.

The Cards tacked on one more tally in the third as Cameron Bowlware scored from third on another error, this one a pickoff attempt by Krum catcher Bryse Buster.

The rest of the night was taken care of on the bump by Griffith, who sailed through the first three innings and allowed only one hit, a clean single up the middle by Tucker Hicks in the fourth, as lightning flickered ominously to the west and north.

Hicks, a left-hander, suffered the loss for Krum despite holding Pottsboro to three singles. All four of the runs Hicks allowed were unearned as the Bobcats committed a total of five miscues behind him.

Griffith walked two and struck out nine, including five in a row in the second and third frames. He worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the fifth by inducing a pair of fly balls for the final two outs, right before the game was called.

“Cory told me he was ready to go, and he threw strikes,” Williams said. “Against a good team like this, to throw strikes was big. He and (catcher) Thomas Flinn did a great job.”