Tigers fight hard, show grit in tough baseball action
By Tyler Tyre
Slatonite Intern
The Slaton Tigers fell to Denver City last Tuesday (April 9) by a score of 15-3, in a hard fought game that saw the Tigers’ battle but not able to overcome the Mustangs’ offense.
Denver City jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning, but the Tigers battled to take the lead in the bottom half, scoring three runs in the inning.
The Mustangs responded however, scoring four runs of their own in the second before holding the Tigers scoreless in the inning to take a 6-2 lead.
“One of our core values is grit and it was actually the team’s word of the day today, I think they showed a lot of that tonight,” Dilon Chancellor said.
The Mustangs tacked on five more runs in the third inning, again holding Slaton scoreless before making the game 14-3 in the fourth inning. Slaton gave up only one run in the fifth but were unable to trim the deficit in the bottom half of the inning, with the game ending 15-3 in the Mustangs favor.
“We battled tonight, but when a team keeps getting runs, we have to be able to respond to that. The team showed competitiveness though,” said Chancellor. “For example, Matt Vigil came in and showed great presence and delivery on the mound and that’s all you can ask from these guys. Come out compete every day and give us everything you got, and that hard work is going to pay off.”
The Tigers were unable to turn things around over the weekend, losing 21-0 to Shallowater. With the two losses Slaton’s district record dropped to 2-8, Slaton is currently tied with Littlefield for sixth place in District. The Tigers will next play in Roosevelt on Friday.
“I’m just thankful to be back in my hometown and given this opportunity. I know what these guys go through day in and day out and can relate to them in that area,” Chancellor said. “Sometimes with change this is what happens though. We are instilling a culture here and we are going to keep believing in this program’s core values. In the long run that is going to pay off for us.”
