Softball tournaments can distort the significance of pitching accomplishments due to inning caps or time limits, rendering perfect games or no-hitters into half-versions of their true selves.
However, there is no denying that tournaments are work, especially for pitchers, and our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, Hamlin southpaw Zoe Moore, earned the accolade with a 4-0 record in the Wichita Falls Sunrise Optimist Tournament last week.
SNYDER — If one looks at most preseason picks involving the Snyder Tigers, the prognosis isn’t good heading into the 2021 campaign. But there are reasons to believe that the “experts” could get it wrong — very wrong.
To begin with, the Tigers have eight starters back on both sides of the football from last year’s 2-6 team among 20 lettermen. Secondly, Snyder is using the same offensive and defensive system for a second-straight year — a luxury they didn’t have a year ago.
SWEETWATER — With their first-ever district championship in softball on the line, the Sweetwater Lady Mustangs had enough poise to overcome a rocky start against area rival Snyder, dropping the Lady Tigers 12-2 in five innings on Tuesday.
Elliannia Perez tossed a complete game and freshman Kendall Daniel was 3 for 3 with a homer, double and five RBIs to lift Sweetwater (16-8-1, 9-0), which locked up the league title by rallying from an early 2-0 deficit.
Snyder slipped to 10-16 overall and 5-4 with the loss. The Lady Tigers were led by Myia and Aaliyah Braziel, who were 2 for 3 and 2 for 2, respectively.
SNYDER — From a coach’s perspective, there is a big difference between a 2-2 and 1-3 record in district play. And heading in to Tuesday’s matchup between Big Spring and Snyder at Moffett Field, each club was faced with a choice between both scenarios.
With both teams holding 1-2 district marks, the danger of heading into the second half of league play with a sub-.500 mark supplied the incentive. It resulted in a wild, come-from-behind 11-10 win for Snyder.
Jaden West was 2-for-4 with an RBI and Austin Escobedo delivered four innings of solid relief pitching to lead the Tigers (9-7, 2-2), who rallied from a 9-0 deficit to earn the win.
SNYDER — As a general rule of thumb, a football coach will often see the largest amount of improvement in his team during his second season.
The reason for this is simple: Not only will his team have a full year in his system under its belt, but a valuable amount of extra practice time will suddenly become available without the need to constantly explain concepts.
This equates to more reps and quicker-moving, more-efficient practices. When combined with the better on-field decision making a year of experience brings, a second season usually produces a better product in the absence of heavy graduation losses.
That was to be the case at Snyder, with a large contingent of returning starters (15 of 22) and lettermen (20) back for second-year coach Wes Wood. With the COVID-19 lockdown, however, SHS found itself dealing with a frustrating athletic stoppage just when they expected to take a step forward.
Football is fast approaching, and we at BigCountryPreps.com are committed to bringing you the information you need to prepare for your favorite team’s season.
We’ll be releasing our Big Country Preps Preseason Football Preview, the most comprehensive look at the upcoming Big Country football season anywhere, on Friday, Aug. 14. But you won’t have to wait until then to sate your gridiron appetite.
Leading up to the first day of fall football practice on Aug. 3, we’ll be spotlighting each 11-man team in the area and posing some of the key questions they’ll face in 2019 as part of our “Countdown to Two-a-Days” series.
After featuring Brock on Sunday, we move to District 1-4A Division II with the Snyder Tigers. On Tuesday, we will take a look at the Sweetwater Mustangs followed by the Big Spring Steers on Wednesday.
SNYDER — Some people can make a difference in the lives of others by simply being themselves — serving as an inspiration without even trying.
Count 37-year-old Jonathan Barrow of Snyder among them.
Barrow, who has been restricted to a wheel chair due to cerebral palsy since childhood, developed a love for the Snyder Tiger football team while attending SHS during the early 2000s.
Over time, he has became a invaluable part of the program in ways that no coach can fully replace.
“Jonathan lives and breathes football,” his mother, Suzanne, said. “It started with (former coach Chad) Rogers including him on the coaches show every Friday morning and it has just blossomed since then.”
SNYDER — When the name “Baugh” is brought up in West Texas football circles, Sweetwater High School is often at the forefront of the discussion, given that it’s the alma mater of late Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback “Slingin'” Sammy Baugh, who graduated from there in the early 1930s.
Believe it or not, the Baugh football tradition continues to this day, but on the campus of Sweetwater’s archrival — Snyder High School — where the great grandson of the NFL legend, Logan Greene, is currently the starting quarterback of the Tigers.
7 p.m. Friday at Tiger Stadium, Snyder
Snyder 27, Littlefield 14 — The Tigers did exactly what they needed to do Friday in their season-opening win at Littlefield, executing well enough on both sides of the ball to get out with a comfortable win over an outmanned Wildcats squad.
It wasn’t always pretty, but Snyder shut out the Wildcats over the first two periods and led 27-7 in the fourth quarter before Littlefield tacked on a window-dressing touchdown with about a minute to play in the game.
J.J. Burns had a big game for the Tigers, rushing for 123 yards and a touchdown on just 17 carries to get coach Cory Mandrell’s squad off to a positive start in 2018.
7:30 p.m. Friday at Wildcat Stadium, Littlefield
As the smallest school in its district by a minimum of 170 students, the Snyder Tigers got real used to playing at a numbers deficit the past four years.
Looking across the field and seeing rosters close to twice their size was not an uncommon occurrence.
So when the news came at the UIL’s most recent realignment that Snyder would be dropping from Class 4A Division I to Division II, it was not only a relief for a third-year coach Cory Mandrell but a shot in the arm for the entire Tiger program.
A strong returning nucleus and a drop to Class 4A Division II has third-year Snyder football coach Cory Mandrell feeling good about his team’s chances in 2018.
The Tigers, who return seven offensive and six defensive starters among 21 total lettermen, feel this could be the year that puts them back on track after a string of six consecutive losing seasons.