ABILENE — Before this week, the last memory any Wall baseball player had of playing Boyd was watching the Yellowjackets celebrate a 6-4 win over their team in the 2023 Class 3A state championship game.

On Thursday, the Hawks took a big step toward replacing that memory with a more pleasant one, downing BHS 6-1 in the opener of a best-of-three Class 3A Division II state semifinals series at Abilene Christian University’s Bullock Brothers Ballpark.

Playing for an opportunity to return to Dell Diamond in Round Rock for the fourth time in program history — all since 2017 — Wall overcame a slow start, answering a one-run top of the first by Boyd with two runs in the home half of the inning. And junior ace Gage Reichenau handled the rest, shutting the Yellowjackets out the rest of the way to put his team in position to close out the series when it resumes at 7 p.m. Friday at Tarleton State University in Stephenville.