Ellis County Sports Your source for Ellis County Sports News
By Travis M. Smith | KBEC Sports
Andrew Herndon took the bump against Trinity Christian – Cedar Hill as a senior on a mission.
He walked off the bump and into the record books — and then some, following his first-ever varsity start.
Herndon (1-0, 0.00 ERA) spun a 17-strikeout perfect game for (7-2-1) Ovilla Christian in a 1-0 walk-off win on March 1. There were only 21 outs to be had in the 7-inning contest. And there was only one hit by either dugout.
TCCH managed a flyout to center field in the first, groundout to third in the fourth, lineout to short in the fifth and groundout to third in the sixth.
Herndon had a run of eight consecutive punchouts from the final out of the first inning to the first out of the fourth.
Ovilla scratched nine base runners over the first six innings, despite Herndon supplying the lone hit (single) in the bottom of the fourth inning. He was erased from the basepaths via a fielder’s choice two batters later.
The Eagles began the bottom of the seventh inning with a Tucker Navarro (.429 BA) walk on five pitches. He advanced to third on a Nate Nunes sacrifice bunt and a stolen base.
Lucas Seymore was then walked intentionally to put Eagles on the corners with one out.
That brought Micah Ward (.412 BA) to the plate. The catcher laid down a beauty of a safety squeeze bunt to plate Navarro for the walk-off win — and sealed Herndon’s perfect bid.
Herndon was named the Diamond Pro Private School Pitcher of the Week by TxHighSchoolBaseball.com for his efforts.
NO-NO POST PERFECTION
Junior Lucas Seymore picked up where he left off in 2021 with a no-hitter on Thursday.
Seymore (1-1, 1.31 ERA) struck out 5 and walked 1 in a 4-1 win against ECCHO. He needed just 78 pitches to maneuver his 7.0 innings of work.
ECCHO scratched its lone run in the top of the seventh inning following a hit-by-pitch, walk, fielder’s choice and error-6.
Seymore tossed his first varsity no-hitter in a 15-0 4-inning victory against Longview Heritage on April 13, 2021.
As for local flavor, the Eagles have had mixed results against Ellis County teams.
Ovilla thumped Italy, 29-0, in late February, only to fall to Maypearl (8-0) and Ferris (19-0) during the first week of March.
Ovilla Christian has qualified for the TAPPS Division-V state tournament in 2013, 2015-19 and 2021. Discounting the COVID-shortened season of 2020, that means the Eagles have appeared in seven of the past eight TAPPS state tournaments.
