By Michael Sudhalter

Special to The News

MONT BELVIEU — The Nederland High baseball team managed to slow down the juggernaut that is 21-5A champion Barbers Hill, but they couldn’t stop the formidable Eagles on Friday night.

Nederland (13-14), despite an exceptional defensive performance, fell to the host Eagles (25-3), 4-0, before a standing room only crowd in Game 1 of a UIL Class 5A best-of-three bi-district series.

“We couldn’t have asked for much more defensively — we played really well,” said second-year Bulldogs head coach Bryan Spell, a 1995 Nederland High graduate who made his NHS playoff coaching debut on Friday. “We have to keep swinging our bats and hitting the ball hard. If Barbers Hill makes mistakes, we really need to capitalize on those.”

The series resumes at 3 p.m. today in Nederland. If the Bulldogs win, a deciding Game 3 will be held immediately afterward at NHS.

The winner of this series will face Santa Fe or Houston Waltrip in the area round next week.

The Bulldogs include two Cardinals signees (seniors Brendan Dunkleberger and first baseman Chase Kemp) and a verbal pledge (junior pitcher Braydon Credeur) on the roster.

Dunkleberger is expected to start Game 2, and a potential starter for Barbers Hill is senior Bryce Bonnin, who signed with the University of Arkansas as a pitcher.

Credeur pitched the first 5-plus innings on Friday, striking out three and allowing four runs. The Bulldogs twice got out of bases-loaded jams — when Credeur threw a strikeout to end the fifth inning, and on a ground ball double play to end the first.

Credeur also delivered Nederland’s only hit of the game — a leadoff single in the top of the third inning.

“Barbers Hill’s pitcher (Chris Stevens) did a good job of keeping us off balance, and they made some spectacular plays behind him,” Spell said.

The Eagles broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the third inning on RBI singles by seniors Brandon Holdren and Koby Emerson, respectively.

Barbers Hill added its third run in the bottom of the fifth when junior Cully Mangus scored as the Bulldogs attempted to complete a double play at first base.

The Eagles scored their final run in the top of the sixth inning on senior Jace Seymour’s RBI Double.

Barbers Hill has won 18 straight games and its only losses have come against 6A power Deer Park (twice) and Bellaire Episcopal, one of the top parochial schools in the Houston area.

Nederland finished fourth in 22-5A with a 9-5 district record. The Bulldogs — in the postseason for the second time in three seasons — have 12 seniors, including seven of nine in the starting lineup on Friday night.

Nederland’s 13-14 record is the result of a tough non-district schedule that included 6A competition in the Pearland tournament and the Clear Creek tournament, and several formidable opponents in the Jasper tournament.