Ropes to Round Rock: Eagles earn trip to state championship game by sweeping Collinsville

ABILENE, Texas (KCBD) - For Ropes head baseball coach Nathan Flores, his first year is going as well as anyone could have imagined. Thursday afternoon in the state semifinals, the Eagles punched their ticket to state with a 4-3 win over the Collinsville Pirates, who entered the game as the defending two-time state champions.

“It’s never about the competition. It’s never about the team we’re playing. It’s always the battle within,” Coach Flores said. “I told them, as long as we come together like family and we have each other’s back and control what we control, we would be successful, and that’s exactly what they did today.”

The win comes less than a day after opening up the series with a 4-2 victory Wednesday night.

After giving up three runs in the first inning Thursday, the Eagles’ pitching duo of Kade Franklin and Cutter Stumbo made sure no other Pirate would score afterwards.

‘Kade’s been one of our dudes. We haven’t had to pitch him too much this year. We were fortunate enough to have a good pitching staff where we could save him and just let him do his thing at third, but when we needed him, he came in and he did a job, “ Flores said. “Cutter, we learned slowly throughout the year that this guy was a good closer, and what a game to close! He came in and he did a job.”

Franklin also delivered from the batters’ box. Down 3-2 in the top of the fifth, his two-run RBI brought home Radley Partington and Ryland Keith for the go-ahead score, which is all the Eagles needed for the win.

Next week’s championship game is set for 12 p.m. Thursday at Dell Diamond in Round Rock. They will play the Burton Panthers, who defeated Beckville 8-6 in a one-game playoff.