Summer Ball

■ Tomcats clinch playoff spot with 8-4 win over Pump Jacks (texastomcats.com)

The Texas Tomcats entered into Wednesday night's game with the East Texas Pump Jacks knowing that their magic number to get into the 2010 TCL playoffs was two. The Tomcats 8-4 win over the Pump Jacks and the McKinney Marshals 7-6 loss to the Alexandria Aces on Wednesday night sealed the Tomcat's fate as the #4 seed in the TCL playoffs. The Tomcats will face the #1 seed in the first round, which is still up for grabs between the Victoria Generals, Brazos Valley Bombers, and East Texas Pump Jacks. Game one of the best-of-three series in the first round will be hosted by the Texas Tomcats at Veterans Memorial Park - Strickland Field in Weimar on Tuesday, August 10. The Tomcats will then play on the road at the home site of the #1 seed for game two and for the "if" game, game three. Those games will be played on Wednesday, August 11 and Thursday, August 12. The winner of the series will then move on to play in the TCL Championship Series against the winner of the matchup of the #2 and #3 seeds.

The East Texas Pump Jacks jumped out to an early 4-0 lead after the first inning of play on Monday night. The Pump Jacks offense roughed up Tomcat's starting pitcher Zach Oates for five hits in inning. But Oates then settled into a groove, only allowing four hits over the next six innings of work without giving up a run to earn the win. Oates struck out six in the ballgame. The Tomcat's offense got back into the game in the bottom of the fourth inning by scoring three runs. The big blow of the inning was a two-run homerun by Nick DeSantiago. Casey Grayson had an RBI single in the inning as well. The Tomcats tied it up in the fifth inning when Andre Rodriguez scored on a passed ball. The Tomcats then took the lead for good by scoring three runs in the sixth. The big hit of the sixth inning was a two-run triple by Wes Mercurio. Andre Rodriguez then hit a sacrifice fly to score Mercurio. The Tomcats added an insurance run in the seventh as Troy White scored on a passed ball to make the final score 8-4.