L.D. Bell puts quiet bats away

GRAND PRAIRIE -After his final post-game gathering of the season, the L.D. Bell baseball players shuffled by silently. Coach Paul Gibson, trailing the pack, wasn't in a talkative mood either. His Blue Raiders had just been eliminated from the Class 5A state playoffs in heart-wrenching fashion. Duncanville scratched for an 11th-inning run to advance to the Region I semifinals with a 2-1 victory Friday night at Grand Prairie's Turner Park. Duncanville also won the opening game of the best-of-three series, 2-1 on Tuesday. Gibson politely answered questions about each team's solid pitching, missed scoring opportunities, Bell's untimely errors and Duncanville's execution in the clutch. Then he finally summed up what every L.D. Bell player and follower would be feeling: "It just wasn't meant to be." The playoffs, on the other hand, seem to be made for Duncanville. The Panthers have made the playoffs 11 consecutive years, 25 times since 1975 and won three state titles. A third-place qualifier this year, Duncanville has played six one-run playoff games, winning five, and has managed to stay alive to play in the fourth round while district co-champions such as L.D. Bell, Trinity, and Keller are gone. "They didn't knock the cover off the ball, but they executed when they had to," Gibson said. To punctuate that point, maybe the weakest hit of the night drove in the winning run. With two outs in the top of the 11th, Duncanville leadoff hitter, Justin Johnson nubbed a slow roller, perfectly placed relief pitcher Aaron Schofield and first baseman Derek Shane, to score Sean Webb, who had reached on a bloop single. On the other hand, the Raiders had three solid hits in the bottom of the eighth inning and didn't score. A double play wiped out Russell Reichenbach's clean single to right. That didn't rival the performance of Duncanville ironman Steven Jobe. Jobe threw 160 pitches in 10 innings during a 13-inning, 2-1 victory over Keller last Friday to clinch Duncanville's area-round series. This time, Jobe lasted 151 pitches but it was good for 10-2/3 innings. He allowed ace Eric Hacker, who won the series opener, to get the final out. "We expect to pitch well every year,"Duncanville coach Bob Rombach said. "I kind of thought pitching would hold us together this season."