Primarily a singles hitter in this, his freshman year, Westside’s Daniel Mengden couldn’t immediately tell if his mammoth blast to begin the seventh inning Thursday night was a home run.

Virtually everyone else watching the Wolves’ area-round game against Cy-Fair at Jersey Village knew it was.

Mengden slammed the first pitch of the seventh off Cy-Fair’s Austin Coble well over the left-field wall, giving the Wolves a 1-0 victory in Game 1 of their series against the defending state champions.

“He gave me my favorite pitch, a ball high and in, but I was just trying to get on with a hit or a walk and start something,” said Mengden, who had one home run entering Thursday. “I had a feeling it was gone, but I was just rounding the bases when I saw they signaled it was a home run.”

The Wolves (24-2), who will go for a sweep of the Bobcats Friday night, had mustered four hits off Coble through six innings. Half were back-to-back bunt singles between the pitcher and first base in the fifth; another was a bloop single to right in the second.

But Coble was outdueled by Westside ace Taylor Wall, a Rice commitment who was perfect through three innings and allowed only one hit, a second-inning double by Zach Thomas.

Wall struck out nine.

“My hat’s off to Taylor Wall,” Westside coach Emrick Jagneaux said. “To put a zero on the board against those guys is a great accomplishment. They have pitching and we’ve got pitching. They’ve got hitting and we struggled a little bit at the plate. They have some guys who can hit it but I knew with Taylor Wall on the mound – he’s a four-year starter for us (and) he’s won big ball games for us. I know when I put the ball in his hands he’s gonna give me everything he’s got. If (Cy-Fair) beat that guy, they would have beaten a good player.”

Game 2 is at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Jersey Village. Game 3, if necessary, will be there at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Westside finally made consistent contact in the fifth. It loaded the bases on a walk and the two bunt singles, but Coble struck out two and picked off a runner at third.

Even though the rally was fruitless, Westside felt it was close to breaking through.

“Our whole team was confident,” Mengden said. “After you see a pitcher a few times you get an idea of what’s coming and what his pitches look like.”

Cy-Fair (21-8) didn’t have a baserunner in the final three innings, setting the stage for a somewhat improbable ending.

“This is a great victory for our kids,” Jagneaux said. “They’re the defending state champions. They played a good game and our kids met a challenge tonight. But our freshman came up and hit the ball out of the yard.”

Subscribe to this comment's feed