The Alvord High School baseball team cruised through district play because of a balanced attack - stellar pitching, dangerous hitting and pesky defense.

Some of those strengths that carried the Bulldogs to their first playoff berth in six years were missing in a best-of-three playoffs series with Peaster over the weekend. Alvord committed eight errors in two games and could not come up with timely hits in its final game before being swept 12-6 and 5-2 in the Class 2A bi-district playoff game in Mineral Wells.

The Bulldogs had a chance to force a third and deciding game in the series with a tight battle Saturday morning in the second contest. They scored twice in the top of the fifth inning to pull within one at 3-2.

The Greyhounds, however, answered in the bottom half of the inning with two unearned runs. Alvord went scoreless in its final two at-bats and its surprise season was over.

The loss ended the year for Alvord with a 12-13 season record. Peaster moved to 17-9 overall and will next face Grandview for the area championship.

The Bulldogs gave Peaster all it could handle for awhile in the first game. After falling behind 1-0 on an error, they stormed back to take their first lead in the bottom half of the first inning.

Back-to-back singles by Hagen Ward and Clayton Shaw set the stage for the runs. Colton Oldham had a sacrifice hit to make it 1-1 before Shaw scored on an error that made it 2-1.

The locals were not finished scoring as they added three more runs in the second inning. Ross Houston reached base on a bunt, and Asa Hand got on via an error.

Both of them scored thanks to an RBI single by Dustin Stachowiak and an RBI bunt single by Ward which made it a 4-1 ball game.

Alvord pitcher Trevor Hahn kept Peaster at bay despite a pair of errors by his defense. However, the Greyhounds finally got to him in the third inning with a three-run home run which evened the game at 4-4.

Shane Watkins made sure Alvord was not down for long as he ripped a one-out single to center field in the fourth frame. He made his way to third before stealing home to put AHS in front again at 5-4.

Mistakes were costly for the Bulldogs the rest of the way. An error and two passed balls in the fourth inning led to three runs as Peaster moved ahead 7-5.

Alvord's sixth error of the game came in the fifth inning and the Greyhounds scored once again to build an 8-5 edge.

The Bulldogs scored their final run of the game in the fifth inning when Houston smacked an RBI single to center field. Shaw, who laced a lead-off single, scored on the play to make it 8-6.

Alvord didn't threaten the rest of the game as it managed just two base runners in the final two innings.

The Greyhounds, meanwhile racked up five hits in the seventh to push four runs across home to put the game out of reach.

Hahn surrendered eight hits for the night while striking out 10 and walking eight.

The Bulldogs had several hits in their final game Saturday but were unable to string enough together to make them count on the scoreboard. Ward and Shaw scattered two hits each, while Justin Meador and Oldham had one single each. The group left the bases loaded in the fifth inning where it had a chance to blow the game open.

Hand took the loss on the hill for Alvord where he had 11 strike outs and allowed six hits with four walks.