Playing on varsity since they were freshmen and sophomores, the now senior-laden cast of Matt Fritsch, Kevin Jackson, Seth Collins, Justin Schiller, Johnny Nix and company have guided the Class 2A No. 6-ranked Eagles to the playoffs for three straight years.
Now, the Salado mainstays begin their final bid to cap their high school careers with a state championship when the Eagles (23-5) meet Edna (20-6) at 6 p.m. today in the opener of a three-game area-round playoff series at Lockhart.
Game 2 is at 6 p.m. Friday while a possible Game 3 is set for 6 p.m. Saturday.
“We have seen almost everything we will see in past playoff games, so there shouldn’t be any surprises,” longtime Salado coach Melvin Bates said. “There shouldn’t be any nerves.”
Salado, the District 25-2A champion, has advanced to the Region IV quarterfinals the last two seasons, losing 4-2 to Trinity a year ago and to East Bernard in two games in 2006. The Eagles were 4-1 in best-of-three series those two years, including two sweeps.
The same team that experienced two seasons of playoff pressure is a year older, a year wiser and better equipped to make a deep postseason run.
“Some of us have really realized what’s at stake here,” Jackson said. “We’ve all kind of stepped up and become better leaders. We know what we have a chance to do and so we’ve stepped up and worked harder and done more this year than we have in the past.”
Taking the mound in tonight’s opener for Salado is left-hander Sam VanHoozer (8-2). Jackson (7-2) will start in Game 2 against a powerful Edna lineup. Schiller or possibly VanHoozer would start if Game 3 is necessary.
The Cowboys, 28-2A runners-up, smacked three home runs in their 12-9 bi-district win over East Bernard. Center fielder Rocky Vaclavik, Edna’s No. 7 hitter who will compete in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles at the University Interscholastic League State Track and Field Meet this weekend in Austin, hit two home runs.
No. 3 hitter and catcher Chris Whitehead is a force and No. 4 hitter Michael Vickery, expected to be the Game 1 pitcher, connected for a three-run walkoff homer in the eighth inning.
“They hit the ball real well up and down the lineup,” Bates said. “There won’t be any easy outs. I feel like we’re going to score some runs on them from the pitching I’ve seen. It may come down to outscoring them.”
Scoring runs hasn’t been a problem for Salado.
Jackson, Collins, Fritsch, Schiller and Nix all are batting above .400 and have scored at least 30 runs each.
Against the right-handed Vickery, who likes to feature his fastball, Bates expects his squad to put the ball in play early and often, just like the Eagles did during a dominant regular season.
“We have more confidence in ourselves and in what we can do,” Jackson said.
Added Collins: “As long as we play how we’ve been playing, we shouldn’t have any problems."
The Salado-Edna winner will battle the victor of Friday’s one-game playoff between 25-2A third-place team Troy and Danbury in next week’s Region IV quarterfinals.
cmeister@temple-telegram.com
