Boerne pitcher Barrett Houser peers over at a runner on first during the Hounds first game in the quarterfinal series against Cedar Park Vista Ridge. Photo by Mike Reeder

Nine official errors and as many or more mental mistakes spelled doom for the Boerne Greyhounds in the quarterfinal round of the state baseball playoffs over the weekend.

Cedar Park Vista Ridge swept the Hounds by scores of 9-6 and 4-3, with nine of the Rangers’ 13 total runs unearned.

The Greyhounds were coming off an emotional and turbulent series win over eighth-ranked New Braunfels Canyon in the area round that included a bench-clearing brawl in game three.

The fight led to the suspension of two Boerne players, including leading hitter Kyle Sulak.

Any hope that the Canyon series would be more spark than distraction quickly evaporated Friday night at Boerne, as starting pitcher Barrett Houser struggled with command of his pitches, and nearly every ball Vista Ridge put into play became an adventure.

“You erase that big five off the error column and we may have a different ball game,” Boerne Baseball Coach Chuck Foster said. “We just did some things that were out of our character.”

The Hounds fell behind early in both games and could never catch up. Vista Ridge took a 4-0 lead in the second inning of game one, thanks in part to a throwing error and a mental mistake in the outfield that allowed runners to advance to second and third with one out.

A double scored two runs and a two-out single plated a third. An 0-2 blooper over short led to a second, two-out run. Houser, who had struggled since opening at 9-0, fell behind the first four batters he faced in the inning.

“Barrett was just missing his spots and we gave them a few,” Foster said. “He didn’t have a good night, but the reason we were in the playoffs is because of the way he pitched all year.”

Brian Brademan drove in a run for the Hounds with a single in the third, but Zach Burdick’s strikeout left runners stranded at second and third. It was a missed opportunity that repeated itself throughout the series.

While the Hounds pounded out their share of hits, the offense sputtered like a car on a cold morning, never quite hitting on all cylinders.

Meanwhile, Vista Ridge was stringing hits together and taking advantage of every Boerne mistake. Burdick relieved Houser in the fourth after the Rangers scored another run off a pair of doubles that were both misplayed in center. Burdick fell behind 3-1 to the first batter he faced and gave up an RBI double. Another misplayed double yielded yet another run, and by the time the inning ended Boerne trailed 7-1.

Blair Kessler gave Boerne something to cheer about with a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth, and it looked like the Hounds might come back all the way when Burdick slammed another two-run shot in the fifth that narrowed the margin to 7-5.

It wasn’t to be. With two outs in the sixth and runners at the corners, a routine grounder to Houser, who had moved to first base, skipped between his legs, allowing one Ranger run to score. An RBI single stretched the Rangers lead back to four, as all the air went out of the Boerne bench.

The Hounds scored one more run in the sixth, but that was all.

Game two was a virtual replay. Lefty starter Niko Gonzales pitched well enough to win, but his own throwing error allowed two runs to score in the second inning, and a well-executed squeeze play gave the Rangers a 4-0 lead for the second game in a row.

Gonzales never allowed another run, and the Hounds had the tying run at third base with just one out in the sixth. The inning ended with him still standing at third, as Boerne was once again unable to come up with a key hit against solid Rangers’ pitching.