Baseball: Clear Creek, Pearland meet in battle for playoff position

Clear Creek and Pearland are two of five 24-5A teams (Clear Brook, Alvin and Clear Lake are the other three) in a mad scramble for the final two playoff spots, and that group isn't that far behind district leaders Clear Springs and Brazoswood.

Clear Creek notched a 9-4 victory at Pearland in the first round, and now, the Wildcats want the sweep, and the valuable tiebreaker that goes with it.

ABOUT THE GAME

• Matchup: Pearland at Clear Creek

• When: 7 p.m. Friday, April 15

• Where: Clear Creek High School in League City

• What's at stake: A Clear Creek sweep of Pearland in 24-5A play

• Pearland players to watch: P-3B Brock Hartson, CF Trey Anderson, P Travis Moore, P Chris Clark, U Bradley Cuyos

• Clear Creek players to watch: CF C.J. McElroy, SS Zack Gibson, 1B-P Chris Morales, P Ryan Kadalla

TEAM HIGHLIGHTS

• Pearland: The Oilers started district at 4-5, and that put them in a tie with Clear Creek and Clear Lake for fifth place, and a game in back of Clear Brook and Alvin for fourth (Clear Springs and Brazoswood started 7-2), heading into this week ... Pearland beat Clear Lake 7-5, Dickinson 8-2 and Clear Brook 4-2, and fell to Clear Springs 2-1, Clear Creek, Brazoswood 4-2 and Alvin 6-3 in the first round, and started the second half of district with a 3-2 loss to Clear Springs and an 11-10 triumph against Clear Lake ... After playing at Clear Creek, the Oilers host Brazoswood at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, and then close district against Clear Brook (away April 21) and Alvin (away April 29).

• Clear Creek: In the first round of 24-5A, the Wildcats downed Dickinson 6-5, Pearland and Clear Lake 9-3, and lost to Clear Brook 5-0, Brazoswood 8-7, Alvin 7-2 and Clear Springs 16-6. They opened the second round by beating Dickinson 15-3 and being edged 7-6 by Clear Brook ... Clear Creek continues district action at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, at Alvin, and wraps up league play against Clear Springs (home April 21) and Clear Lake (away April 29) ... The break in games between April 21 and 29 is due to TAKS testing.