The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

The Bridge City Cardinals have advanced to the second round of the state baseball playoffs in Class 4A. The Cardinals made short work of the Splendora Wildcats sweeping them in two games.

The best of three series was played at a neutral site in Anahuac which has an all synthetic baseball field. Bridge City was the second seed from District 19-4A and Splendora was the third seed in District 20-4A.

The first game was played on Friday evening. The Cardinals had solid hitting and got great pitching. Bridge City won the game 10-0 in five innings with the 10-run rule being invoked.

Senior Braylen Collins pitched a no-hitter in the abbreviated game. Collins struck out seven Wildcats and did not walk anyone.

The Cardinals took a commanding lead when they scored eight runs in the third inning. Solo runs in the fourth and fifth closed out the game in favor of Bridge City.

Five different Cardinals John Van Huis, JS Bearden, Justin Abate, Aidyn Mulhollan, and Hunter Ford each had two hits in the game. Mulhollan drove in three runs for Bridge City.

On Saturday the series resumed between Bridge City and Splendora. The Cardinals won 3-1 to take the series two games to none.

Aidyn Mulhollan and JS Bearden gave Bridge City strong pitching. Mulhollan threw five shutout innings to earn the win and Bearden got a save going the last two innings.

JS Bearden scored the first run for Bridge City, drove in two runs, and pitched the last two innings to earn a save in the second game of the sweep by the Cardinals

The contest was a scoreless pitchers' duel going into the fourth inning. Bearden scored the Cardinals' first run in the game on a sacrifice fly by Justin Abate.

The Cardinals added to their lead in the sixth. Bearden who was two for three on the day knocked in John Van Huis and Chasse Goodwin with the insurance runs that proved to be the difference in the two-run victory.

Up next for Bridge City will be Lufkin Hudson in the area round of the state baseball playoffs. The Hornets were undefeated in winning their district and swept Henderson with two shutouts in the bi-district round.

The Bridge City Cardinals and the Lufkin Hudson Hornets will face each other in a best of three series with all the games to be played in Jasper. The first game starts at 7:00 PM on Thursday, game two is scheduled for Friday at 7:00 PM, and a third game if necessary will be played Saturday at 4:00 PM.