Spring Break for Wimberley High School students brings opportunities for family visits, road trips, late season snow skiing or other get-outof- town days before the final stretch toward the end of the school year. But for many, their commitments to extra-curricular activities keep them in town.
Such was the case this past week for Texan baseball, who played their second district game in Bandera versus the Bulldogs last Tuesday, March 14.
“We had a difficult start down there,” Wisdom recalled. “Eleven walks — six coming in the first two innings — and five errors will hurt the best team. We had trouble being consistent and finding the zone; their batters just sat back, watched pitches and drew the walks.”
Wisdom’s team was playing their seventh game in eight days — which is a lot of baseball. Arms get tired, faculties dull and decision-making becomes a challenge both in the field and at the plate. Conditions were right for the Bulldogs to take advantage and the win, doubling up the Texans 10-5.
Wisdom spoke about what takeaways are available for an early season disappointment.
“We really didn’t talk about it afterward,” he surmised. “There’s no reason to spend time reflecting on it. We need to move forward and hope we can put it behind us.”
Thursday’s game against Fredericksburg High School at Texan Field had the feel of a must-win matchup. Sophomore pitcher Ty Thames took to the hill hoping to stretch the start into late innings to give the Texan pitching staff a breather. Hollywood could not have written a better script than what happened on the field The Texans went three up, three down in the top of the first inning with two strikeouts; then, they put a couple of Billies on base in the second inning with a walk and a batter hit by pitch. The defense rose up — including a pickoff at second base when catcher Kyler Lai threw a bullet to shortstop Lane Patek and when Owen O’Neal snagged a grounder to third base and made a clean throw to Bryson Young at first for the third out.
The Texans started strong in the bottom of the second with Cody Overall reaching the wall in right center for a double then scoring a few pitches later on an error. They held that lead into the bottom of the third when Chase Carson led off the bottom of the inning with a double, scoring on the next pitch as Lai also doubled to right field. Romo came in as courtesy runner for Lai, advancing to third on a Zach Patek single to left. After a wild pitch, Romo scored and Patek advanced to second then stole third. Lane Patek hit a deep fly to center field for the sacrifice RBI, bringing in Zach to make the score 4-0.
Thames’ rough inning would come in the top of the fourth as he walked the first two batters then had a wild pitch to advance the lead runner to third base. The next batter put a ball in play yet was thrown out at first, scoring a run on the fielder’s choice. Another wild pitch moved the runner on base from second to third. He would score on a second fielder’s choice, making the score 4-2.
The fifth inning was one of redemption for Thames as he tossed three straight strikeouts — two with batters looking — to stymie the Billies. The Texans would score two in the bottom of the fifth, fueled by the brothers Patek reaching base consecutively on Fredericksburg errors then scoring to stretch the score 6-2. With momentum on their side, the Texans held the Billies scoreless in the top of the sixth inning and added more runs in the bottom on a two-run double to center by Lane Patek. Thames would sit the next three Billies’ batters on strikeouts, finishing the complete game no-hitter with a final score of 8-2.
Coach Wisdom praised Thames’ effort: “You can’t say enough about the sophomore. Goodness gracious, he competes. You don’t have to tell him to go fight — he’s gonna fight. For him to step up and do what he did is huge for us this week.”
“I just got out there, competed and enjoyed it,” Thames said. “We needed to bounce back from Tuesday, of course, but this was a district game, an important game… Our defense? Unbelievable; no errors. That’s all you can ask for as a pitcher.”
Coach Wisdom was vocal in praising the team after the outing.
“To come back, settle in and play well made a big difference,” he said. “I thought we showed a bit more discipline, adjusting to the pitches. We still need to be better at our two strike approach, sit back and hit it the other way, but we did a better job of putting a few hits together.”
“That’s what we needed,” Wisdom added. “We had opportunities that set us up for a really big inning, but we didn’t execute. So, there are still some places where we can get better.”
Wisdom said he is convinced this team is capable of making significant noise in the district competition and considers every game going forward as a big game, labeling each win as huge. He seems to be passing that attitude and spirit on to his Texan team, while hoping the extended Spring Break weekend might be just what they needed to get rest and be ready for the next challenge.
As Thames shared, “We’re definitely building up, and we’ve got bright things ahead of us. Though we’re still figuring things out, it will come with more at bats and as we get our live arms rested. Now, we got a few days off — we’ll go shoot some turkeys and come back ready to go.”
The Texans traveled to The Backbone on Tuesday, March 21 to Canyon Lake High School and are set to host the Boerne Greyhounds on Friday, March 24 at 6 p.m. The home team plays on Texan Field Tuesday, March 28, looking to take their second game against the visiting Davenport High School Wolves.
