The Pleasant Grove Hawks baseball team advanced to the 4A state championship game. The Hawks earned the championship game birth after their 13-0 win over the Stephenville Yellow Jackets in the state Semi final Wednesday. The game was played at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Texas. The Hawks won by way of the 10-run-rule in the 5th inning.

The Hawks jumped to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first. PG scored 5 more runs in the bottom of the third. the Hawks finished the route by hanging 4 more runs on the Yellow Jackets in the bottom of the fourth.

Hawks junior pitcher Blake Jennings earned the win

Hawks starting pitcher junior Blake Jennings (8-4) earned the win. Jennings pitched a 5 inning complete game shut, allowing only 2 hits while striking out 2 and walking two.

“My arm was feeling really good today and our offense was amazing at the plate and our defense made great plays in the field and it paid off,” Blake Jennings said.

Hawks bats exploded on the Yellow Jackets starting pitcher Reese Elston. Elston pitched 2 and 1/3 innings. Three other Yellow Jacket relievers didn’t fair much batter.

JM Long, Hawks sophomore shortstop led PG sluggers. Long was 2-for-3 with 2 triples and 3 RBi’s. The UIL announced JM Long player of the game.

Several other Hawks batters were also successful. Brock Bearden was 2-for-2 with 3 RBI’s, Alex Murphy was 1-for-2 with with 2 RBI’s and Tucker Anders was 1-for-2 with 2 RBI’s.

I think we were all seeing the ball well and we feel good about tomorrow’s game,” Brock Bearden said.

“Ive been feeling real good latley about my arm and both our middle infielders do a great job applying tags,” Cason Head, Hawks catcher said.

‘It was real easy to see hear and real easy to get locked in here,” JM Long said.

Hawks head coach Riley Fincher was jubilant after the win.

“It was an outstanding job up and down throughout our lineup defensively, Blake Jennings did and outstanding job; he got out of the first inning with 4 pitches then our offense did the job scoring 4 runs with two outs setting the  tempo and we kept attacking offensively, ” Riley Fincher said.”Blake gave an outstanding effort filling out the strike zone.

Pleasant Grove (34-8) will play the Rusk Eagles (28-7)  in the 4A State Championship. Rusk defeated Sinton 6-3 in the late afternoon semifinal.

The state championship game will be played Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Texas. The game will be broadcasted live on 94.1 FM ESPN-Texarkana. Bob DelGiorno is the voice of the Pleasant Grove Hawks on the radio.