Plenty of Houstonians are really happy Westside pitcher Taylor Wall is going to Rice next season. One of them is Bellaire coach Rocky Manuel, who might even get him a going-away present.

“Boy, I’m glad he’s graduating,” Manuel said. “In fact, I’m going to buy him a graduation present.”

Manuel and the rest of the Cardinals are happy to see Wall for the final time. He stymied the Bellaire bats for most of the game, then held on to get a 3-2 win in Game 1 of the Region III-5A final series Friday night at Roy Knoblauch Field. Wall pitched no-hit baseball until the sixth inning, and despite giving up two runs in the frame, he kept his team ahead to get the win.

The Wolves are now one win away from their first berth in the state semifinals. If they can beat Bellaire again on Saturday afternoon, Westside will be going to Round Rock next week.

Wall, who was coming off of a no-hit performance against Baytown Sterling last week, held the Cards without a hit until the sixth inning when Cardinal catcher Jeremy Schaffer hit a single into left field, the first hit allowed by Wall in 12 consecutive innings.

“I was trying to be too fun,” Wall said. “I had two outs in the sixth inning and I kind of hung one to Schaffer, and he made me pay for it.”

Westside’s defense looked like it was going to hurt Wall early in the first inning, as the first two batters reached on throwing errors by catcher Cory Maltz. But a pickoff play at second by Wall got one out, then a great throw to home by third baseman Brett Zieren on a squeeze play helped the Wolves escape the first frame without giving up a run.

“The first inning was the toughest,” Wall said. “The adrenaline was flowing and after I got through the first inning, I relaxed and settled down a little bit.

“For (Brett) to make that play was huge. Then the pickoff really shut the momentum down and we were able to adjust off of that and really get it going.”

Wall then went on to retire the next 15 batters in order before Schaffer’s two-out single in the sixth inning. Two batters later with men on first and second, third baseman Kyle Chaskin laced a Wall pitch off the left-center field wall for a two-RBI double that pulled the Cards within a run. After a walk to outfielder Wesley Mercurio to load the bases, Wall got shortstop Alex Silver to bounce to the mound and get out of the jam with the lead intact.

“(He had a) heck of a pitching performance,” Manuel said. “He really reached back and found something extra when we slammed that double off the wall and closed in on him. That’s the mark of a great left-hander.”

Wall had nine strikeouts in the game and got most of his other outs on groundballs. His streak of 18 innings without giving up a run ended, but it gets his team closer to a chance for a state title.

“It had to come to an end sometime,” Westside coach Emrick Jageneaux said. “We knew they were going to make a run, and fortunately, he was able to get out of it.

“You can’t say enough about Taylor Wall. The guy was a four-year starter for me. I’m going to miss that guy when he’s gone. I just hope he takes us where we need to go.”

Wall, who will be in the infield for Game 2 of the series, expects Bellaire to fight hard to try to send the series to a deciding third game. 

“We know they’re going to come out with more fire (Saturday), and we got to answer it,” Wall said.

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