Almost six months ago, 13-0 Salado lost 41-31 in the Class 2A Division I semifinals to Tatum, ending the Eagles’ bid for their first state football championship.
They get another shot at bringing home Salado’s first state baseball championship when the third-ranked Eagles (30-6) play No. 8 San Angelo Grape Creek (30-6) at 10 a.m. today in a University Interscholastic League state semifinal at Dell Diamond.
So what did Salado’s baseball players who played on that football team learn from their first state experience?
“Just go out there and you don’t need any Herculean effort,” said Salado third baseman Fritsch, a standout safety on the 13-1 Eagles squad. “If everybody goes out there and does their own job, good things will come. You don’t have to try and carry the weight on your shoulders. No reason to be nervous. Just go out there and do your thing.”
Before this school year began, the Eagles had advanced to the state semifinals only once in football (1979) and baseball (1986) until this year’s teams pulled the trick in both sports.
“It makes you feel honored,” Fritsch said about being a part of the most successful football and baseball teams in school history. “There’s a lot of people behind you. The community is really behind you. There’s just the feeling of being on top.”
The momentum of the football team’s success carried over into the rest of the school’s sports. Almost every Salado athletic team reached the playoffs, highlighted by the boys golf state championship last month.
Two wins away from adding more hardware to the trophy case, Salado might already have a distinct advantage over the other three state qualifiers - Grape Creek, Corsicana Mildred and Buna - because it played at Dell Diamond in last week’s Region IV championship victory over Lexington and got used to the environment.
“It’s a big advantage,” Collins said. “We know what it’s going to be like in that atmosphere and how the field is. Being on the field and not getting caught up and looking around at everything is big. It’s the same game but a whole different atmosphere around you.”
That experience could come in handy when the Eagles meet three teams they haven’t seen this year.
Grape Creek, champion of District 6-2A and Region I, is making its first trip to the state tournament after winning four straight Game 3s. Its Eagles trailed 5-4 and were down to their last out against Comfort in the area round before pulling out a dramatic 6-5 win with the help of an error and a game-ending wild pitch.
Landon McCall leads the team with a .479 average while boasting a 13-2 record on the mound with a 1.90 earned-run average.
Buna, which won 24-2A and Region III, hasn’t lost in the playoffs and is making its second state appearance. Pitchers Brandon Hillin (10-0, 2.05) and Josh Clark (10-3, 2.17) lead the Cougars.
Mildred, which captured 16-2A and Region II, has a .397 batting average and has scored 9.3 runs per game. Like Salado, Mildred has five players batting .400 or better, led by Jake Shimonek’s .544 average.
While Salado coach Melvin Bates doesn’t know what to expect from his opponents, he knows what to expect from state tournament umpires.
In his first season, Bates’ 1986 Salado squad issued 22 walks and hit three batters in a 14-9 loss to Archer City in the Eagles’ only state appearance.
“What was upsetting was back then they used to get Southwest Conference umpires for those games,” Bates said. “I’m expecting the same thing tomorrow. If the pitch was not on the black, it was not a strike. The pitches that we threw, it wasn’t like they were hitting the backstop or were thrown behind the batters.”
If finding the strike zone is the Eagles’ biggest obstacle, then the pressure falls on today’s starter, senior right-hander Kevin Jackson. He is 10-2 with a 1.84 ERA and hasn’t lost since March.
“No matter what happens tomorrow,” Bates said, “if we play good baseball, then you have to be satisfied with the result."
cmeister@temple-telegram.com
