When it comes to baseball in Region I-3A, the path to the state tournament in recent seasons has gone through one of two programs — the Brock Eagles or the Wall Hawks.

Since BHS was moved into the region in the 2017-18 alignment, those are the only two teams out of I-3A to earn trips to Round Rock, with the Eagles making state appearances in 2018, 2021 and 2022 and the Hawks doing so in 2017 and 2019. 

With the two set for a best-of-three region championship series Thursday through Saturday at Abilene Christian University’s Crutcher Scott Field, that trend is already guaranteed to continue in 2023. So, too, is a hyper-competitive rivalry that has now seen the teams meet in five of the past six postseasons — there were no playoffs in 2020 due to COVID — with two series victories on each team’s ledger coming into this year’s games.