Texan Classic gives WHS baseball a boost

There are a bunch of fresh faces on the field for the Wimberley Texan baseball team, starting with a new coach. For the first time in around two decades, Dane Saucier is not on the field with the Wimberley Texans after retiring last year.

Stephen Wisdom has been promoted to head coach from his position as assistant coach, but it is far from his first time managing a team.

Previously, Wisdom was the head coach at Johnson City, Malakoff and Granger and he comes to the program with 22 years of coaching experience.

Wisdom said that his coaching style is a bit more aggressive offensively than that of his predecessor.

“I am an aggressive-type offensive coach,” Wisdom said. “Maybe not the traditional small ball of bunting over. We like to hit and run and take an extra base and put pressure on the defense. We may not be hitting the home runs, but we want to put pressure on the defense by putting the ball in play.”

Beyond the coach, the team lost nearly every starting playing last year. All nine starters in the field graduated along with the top two starting pitchers making this season a brand new ball game for the Texans.

“They have to establish a whole new identity as a team,” Wisdom said. “We have to find out who is going to step up and take on those roles. You know which kids have potential, but it’s interesting and exciting to see who steps up.”

Zach Britton is starting to settle into a consistent role on the mound, when he’s not at third base, but he is also proving to be one of the top hitters on the team.

“He has been the best all around player so far,” Wisdom said. “He has been doing it defensively, at the plate and on the mound.”

As with any team that has a lot of change, finding new leadership is important. Luckily, Wisdom has senior leaders to lean on.

“We’ve got some really good leaders,” Wisdom said. “Caleb Cervenka moved positions to the outfield, he has been playing well and has been willing to learn the position. He is a leader on and off the field. He is mature about playing his roles. Jake Williford is the same way at catcher. He is a leader every day at practice. Whether he is on the field or not, he has been a great leader for us.”

The Texan Classic was held in Wimberley last weekend with Wimberley coming away with two wins and a tie.

Wimberley beat Monahans 6-1 to start the tournament before falling to a powerful Magnolia squad 17-5. The Texans followed up with a 10-3 win over Stephenville before tying Burnet 6-6 to finish out the tournament. The Texans are now 7-5-1 on the season.

“The win over Stephenville was a huge confidence booster for us,” Wisdom said. “They are ranked and are supposed to be really good this season, so it was a big win.”

The Texans will play Antonio Prep on the road on Thursday before coming back home on Saturday to play La Vernia.