MIDLAND — Luke Heller and Wacey Dill combined on a three-hitter while Nate Berry and Hayden Rudloff both provided RBI base hits to lift Stephenville to a 3-2 win over Canyon Randall in Game 1 of the Region I-4A championship series at Christiansen Stadium.
The Yellow Jackets took a 2-0 lead in the third inning when Berry singled home KB Bowman and Mason Weyers scored on a throwing error. They later expanded their advantage to 3-0 when Rudloff drove in Berry with a single.
ABILENE — Regardless of outcome, Region I-2A was going to send a solid team to the state baseball tournament. It was only a matter of waiting for the results.
In the end, New Home swept Hawley 5-1 and 12-2 on Thursday at Drigger’s Field at McMurry University, clinching its fourth trip to Rock Rock’s Dell Diamond since 2018.
“I knew from the get-go that this would be a good series because we knew Hawley was a good team,” New Home coach Brady Webb said. “All the teams in Hawley’s district with Albany, Anson and Stamford, can all play.
“The ones that make it into the playoffs all have a shot.”
The special moment that had been a year in the making could begin as soon as Kaedyn Lee secured the fly ball in right field.
Coahoma, which had come so close to winning it all the previous year, could finally celebrate on the infield at McCombs Field.
The Lady Bulldogs captured the Class 3A state championship Thursday afternoon with a 4-2 victory over Santa Gertrudis Academy. It’s Coahoma’s second softball title in school history with the other coming in 1998.
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.