Boerne pitcher Barret Houser (7-0) threw a complete game against Alamo Heights this past Friday night, limiting them to seven hits and helping the Greyhounds take a 7-2 victory over the Mules to remain tied with Tivy for first place in District 27-4A. Photos by Marvin Pfeiffer

Here we go again – maybe.

Assuming Boerne defeated Kennedy and Tivy won over Fredericksburg Tuesday night, the Greyhounds and Antlers will be squaring off in Kerrville at 7 p.m. Friday, with sole possession of the District 27-4A baseball lead once again on the line.

Tivy won the first showdown in Boerne this season, only to lose its next game to Alamo Heights. Meanwhile, Boerne has reeled off three wins in a row. Both squads are 6-1 in district play.

The two teams also battled back and forth for the district lead last season, with Tivy finally winning the title in a tie-breaker game played at Nelson Wolff Stadium.

Tuesday’s contests were played after the View had gone to press, and while Tivy and Boerne were both favored, neither game was considered a walkover. Fredericksburg upset Alamo Heights last week and Kennedy also has the players to spring an upset.

“I don’t want our guys looking ahead,” Boerne baseball coach Chuck Foster said over the weekend. “If they were looking ahead Sunday, they won’t be Monday because we’re going to focus on Kennedy.”

Boerne kept control of its own destiny last week by walloping Memorial 15-0 and rolling over Alamo Heights 7-2, with both wins coming on the road.

The Hounds scored six of their seven runs against the Mules in the third inning off Heights pitcher Preston Whitley, who had trouble finding the strike zone. Boerne outfielder Drew Roumelis, who leads the Hounds with five home runs, broke open the game with a two-run bomb over the left field wall.

Blair Kessler popped out, but Whitley walked the next hitter, and sophomore third baseman Taylor Davis took Whitley deep to right center for the first dinger of his varsity career.

Whitley ended up hitting two batters and walking six before finally being relieved by Michael Almquest. Almquest only gave up one hit the rest of the way, but the damage had been done.

“The home runs helped, of course, but we were doing a real good job of making the guy throw strikes, and he had some difficulty throwing strikes,” Foster said. “It’s pretty hard to recover from those kinds of innings defensively, so it’s good to get one offensively.”

Boerne junior pitcher Barrett Houser made sure the Mules didn’t recover by scattering seven hits over seven innings for the complete game shutout. Houser is now 7-0 on the year, with five of his wins coming on the road.

“Houser goes out there and he’s methodical,” Foster said. “He makes the pitches he needs to make and he’s got a real good breaking ball and a good changeup. He’s not overpowering but he spots his fastball well and it’s got good movement.”

While Boerne scored all but one of its runs in the third inning against Heights, the Hounds had laid waste to Memorial in every frame earlier in the week.

Boerne piled up 16 hits en route to its 15-0, run-rule rout of the outgunned Minutemen. Niko Gonzales only lacked a homer to have hit for the cycle and drove in three runs. Jake Ramirez, Trevor Bergin, Joel Warren and Adam Amick also tallied multiple hits. Amick also went three innings on the mound and picked up the win before being relieved by Zach Burdick. Burdick struck out all six batters he faced.