Whatever it takes: Versatile senior Ward playing crucial role in Belton's playoff charge

BELTON — Shane Ward has tried not to think about it much. Still, he realizes that all these years playing baseball with the guys he’s grown up with will end sometime in the next month.

Ward will be off to study at Baylor in the fall, making this final baseball season something he wants to enjoy.

So that’s certainly made Belton’s success in the playoffs mean even more to the senior who’s been a big part of these recent wins all across the diamond.

“It’s something I relish about it,” Ward said. “It’s a lot of fun being out here. We’re just trying to have fun, be together the last couple weeks until we graduate. We just have fun out here and do the best we can.”

Baseball has indeed been fun the past few weeks, especially with the way Ward and the Tigers have been playing to reach the third round of the postseason.

Ward will take his usual spot atop the lineup when Belton’s Class 5A Region II quarterfinal series against Bryan opens at 7 p.m. Thursday at Mary Hardin-Baylor’s Red Murff Field.

And when he’s gotten on base, which tends to happen more often than not, good things have seemed to happen.