At 8:15 on Saturday morning, Hawley baseball coach Jamie Seago thought there was no way that his squad would be able to finish its Region I-2A series with Christoval at Cooper’s Cougar Field, which was saturated by overnight rainfall.

Then he struck out with Coahoma, Lamesa and Abilene Christian and circled back to Cougar Field.

By that point, the outfield had dried out enough to where getting a lunchtime start was a feasible option. All of this happened without his squad knowing how hard Seago was working behind the scenes.

Seago’s hard work paid off as the Bearcats beat Christoval 14-4 in six innings to sweep the Cougars and advance to a regional semifinal showdown with district rival Stamford. The two teams split their season series with Stamford winning 13-2 at Hawley before the Bearcats took a 10-5 win a few weeks later.