Even as the game got late, the Chaps never quit. Neither did senior catcher Hudson Byrd.

Down three runs to district rival Lake Travis with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth, Byrd stepped in for the fourth pitch of the at-bat.

“[I] just missed the first one [slider], didn’t get down on myself, missed two fastballs,” Byrd said. “And then I knew the slider was coming again.”

With the flick of his bat, the ball zipped over the Cavalier third baseman and trickled to the left field wall scoring all three runners and putting Westlake up against Lake Travis for the first time 2023.

Westlake (19-4-1, 7-1 District 26-6A) held on to that lead and pulled a late, come-from-behind win Friday night against Lake Travis (13-9-3, 6-2 District 26-6A) in the second game of the series. Having been no-hit on Tuesday night, the Chaparrals got back at the Cavaliers in the home portion of the series in front of a packed out student section at Woerner Field.

“We told our guys all week we weren’t going to overreact, we were going to respond,” varsity baseball head coach J.T. Blair said. “And that’s what you saw tonight.”

Tuesday evening in the first game of the series, Cavalier junior pitcher and Texas-commit Cooper Webb fired a no-hitter against the Chaps. Junior lefty pitcher Luke McBride continued that dominance Friday night. He kept the Chaparral offense in check  for 5 ⅔ innings where he posted five strikeouts and allowed four hits.

“They just mixed it up,” Blair said. “I knew we were finally going to get to them and that’s what we did.”

A slow first inning gave Lake Travis an early 3-0 lead after an error, a walk, and a pair of hits. But after that, Chaps junior pitcher Hayes Broadhead matched McBride by throwing five more innings in which he let up zero runs, and Westlake stayed in a position to climb back into the game.

“Broadhead gave us a chance,” Blair said. “Broadhead kept us close in that game.”

The fans had thinned out a bit going into the bottom of the sixth with a Cavaliers series sweep looking inevitable. A hit-by-pitch that got a runner on was immediately wiped away with a double play. Down to their last life in the sixth, junior infielder Austin Knox started the rally with a single on a bead to left field.

Another hit-by-pitch brought two on base for the Chaps. Then, senior outfielder Evan Lung advanced the rally with a hard-hit ball that bounced off the pitching mound and rolled into shallow no-man’s-land between the shortstop and third base.

With the bases loaded and two outs, senior infielder Holland Page stepped up to bat. With a ping of the metal high-school bat, Page slapped a shallow liner into right field for a hit which brought home two runners. With the momentum and the student section behind them, the Chaparrals were back to within one.

“I knew if we kept it close that we were capable of a big inning,” Blair said. “And I knew if we kept it close, we could have one.”

An injury to sophomore catcher Ethan Armbruster tasked Byrd with the starting job behind the plate and hitting at the seven spot in the lineup.

Byrd now had an opportunity to ignite the Westlake student section.

The catcher got into his stance and watched the first pitch, a strike. He found nothing he liked in the next two, taking them both for balls.

“Coach [David] McGhee told me what to do,” Byrd said. “He said ‘sit slider’.”

The senior got the slider he wanted and took it down the left field line rolling it to the metal wall. Cavalier senior outfielder Wyatt Bickers came up throwing but it was too late. All three runners headed home and Byrd ran to second base.

The Chaps brought in senior pitcher Quinton Moran to lock the game down. He did so in 29 pitches and saved Westlake varsity baseball’s first victory over its rival in two years.

“Tonight, what you saw is two of the best high school baseball teams in the state of Texas,” Blair said.