Baseball adapts, overcomes

Wimberley High School’s Texan baseball team is on a win streak.

After stumbling hard coming out of the gate into the second half of the season, the young men have turned a corner by taking a new tack on their style of play. The team started with good pitching in preseason and tournament play but lost control and consistency facing district opponents — which led to a 2-5 record coming into last week. After a team get-together, a decision was made to trust the defense, throw strikes and believe in each other. The change has altered their trajectory.

After defeating Bandera High School in the away game the week before, the weather delayed the next game until a week later. The Texans hosted the Bulldogs on Monday, April 10, putting together a solid effort behind the pitching of Hayden Oakes and Finn Mignerey. Oakes tossed three and a third innings, allowing only one hit and no runs with one strikeout. Mignerey backed him up out of the bullpen with three and two-thirds, striking out seven with no hits for the save. Eight Bandera batters got on the base paths via free pass — walk, hit by pitch, or error — a problem that has plagued the Texans during district thus far.

The Texans picked up three runs in the bottom of the second behind hits from Kyler Lai and Zach Patek as well as a fielder’s choice by Owen O’Neal. The offense manufactured another run in the fifth when O’Neal led off with a single, moved to second when Chase Carson bunted for a single and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt to third base by Bryson Young. Cody Overall stroked a shot to center for a sacrifice fly to score O’Neal for the last run of the game and a Texan win, 4-0.

The team traveled to Fredericksburg High School Tuesday, April 11 for their second matchup of the season. The Texans left a sour taste in the Billies’ mouths in their mid-March game as Ty Thames threw a two-run no-hitter at Texan Field in an 8-2 win. This time, Thames was playing right field, but another solid pitching performance came from the mound for the Texans on the arm of Carson. Carson and the Texans’ defense blanked the Billies for six full innings with three strikeouts, giving up a mere three hits before handing the ball over to Trent Habbit and Wyatt Martinez in a shaky bottom frame of the seventh as Fredericksburg scored four. Another 10 batters reached on free passes issued by the Texans, including four in the seventh.

Wimberley picked up two runs in the second and played small ball in the fourth once Overall singled with one out, stole second and third then snuck home on another Lane Patek bunt. Young would score after getting hit by a pitch leading off the sixth then make his way around the bases on three wild pitches before three outs were recorded.

Coach Stephen Wisdom said he was proud of Carson’s effort from the bump.

“We’ve changed our philosophy with our pitchers,” he explained. “If it takes seven pitchers to get the ball over the plate, then we’ll use seven pitchers. Chase threw a great game, and I think I left him in a little long because he was doing so good.”

For his part, Carson said he looks to the team’s attitude change as a bright spot.

“It doesn’t matter who we play if we play together,” he said. “At our game against Canyon Lake, we felt divided and weren’t cooperating, even yelling at each other. But after Davenport, we’ve come together.”

“When we played the Saturday game against Pflugerville, we figured it out, played for each other, and it feels like a different team,” he added. “We can trust each other to play hard and play together. It’s a new team in that dugout right now.”

Leading 4-0 in the top of the seventh, the Texans put two more across the plate as insurance after Zach Patek singled and scored behind hits by Lai (double) and Thames (single,) then Lai scored on a fielder’s choice from the bat of O’Neal. They needed the runs as Fred put on a mad scramble to score four in the bottom of the last inning. Habbit came in to spell Carson after a couple of throwing errors in the field allowed two runs. Habbit induced the first out on a fly ball, then had the bases loaded when Martinez stepped in as relief. Martinez recorded out number two on an infield fly to Zach Patek and allowed a run on a single to right to make the score and 6-4. Martinez came up big on the next batter. After going down 3-0 in the count, the pitcher dug deep and heaved three straight strikes against the Billies’ batter — all three looking — to close out the game.

The third matchup took place Friday, April 14 at Texan Field on “Logan’s Dugout” night — in remembrance of Logan Overall — which began with a moment of silence recognized by both teams. The Texans looked to sweep the Billies in the season series and started out hot with an open frame on the top of the first and a run earned in the bottom as Zach Patek singled in leadoff batter Young. Ryan Slade pitched the first inning and took a hard liner to the leg from the leadoff batter in the second. He recorded the out but walked the next three to load the bases. Thames came in from right field to pitch a couple of strikeouts to preserve the shutout after two.

Thames and Wimberley’s defense took care of the Fredericksburg third and picked up three runs in the bottom to lead 4-0. Overall singled and stole second before Lane Patek doubled to send Overall home. A walk and hit batsman later, the bases were loaded as Thames came up with no outs. Lane scored on a wild pitch which advanced Zach to third. With two outs, he was thrown out in an attempted steal of home.

The Texans again blanked the Billies behind new pitcher Mignerey in the third. Overall again scored in the bottom of the inning stretching the lead to 5-0 and remained so until the top of the sixth. A walk, single and walk combination loaded the bases and led to the exit of Mignerey for Martinez. The pitcher induced a 6-43 double play allowing one run with a second coming on the next ball in play that resulted in an error. Martinez threw three straight strikes to end the inning. He came back for the top of the seventh and — spurred by an incredible play by left fielder Carson, who snagged a ball fading behind him and over his head — allowed only one base runner before coaxing the third out to finish the game and series. Wimberley allowed eight players on base from free pass in the contest.

Wisdom reflected on the series: “We weren’t worried about who the opponent was and went out and took care of business offensively. I think getting runs settled everything else down, helping our pitchers get up there and be more confident throwing strikes. We’ve talked about staying focused and even keeled and it shows.”

The Texans are on a four-game district win streak and sit at 6-5 heading into the last two weeks of the regular season. The Texans faced Canyon Lake High School for senior night this Tuesday and play away at Canyon Lake on Friday, April 21 at 6 p.m. They will meet up at Boerne High School on Tuesday, April 25 before coming home to finish district, hosting the Greyhounds on Friday, April 28 at 6 p.m.