| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |||
| Cypress Christian | . | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 0 | . | 10 | 13 | 0 |
| McKinney Christian | . | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | . | 7 | 10 | 1 |
The Cypress Christian Warriors prevailed in a slugfest that featured 23 hits and 17 runs, beating McKinney Christian 10-7 to claim the TAPPS Division III Baseball State Championship.
McKinney Christian started the scoring off in the bottom of the 1st. With one out, John Clark singled and then scored on a Caden Brown RBI single giving McKinney Christian an early 1-0.
Cypress Christian pick up a run of their own in the top of the second. Gavin Gray doubled to lead off the inning, went to 3rd on a wild pitch and scored on a Brandon Williams ground out to tie the game at 1-1.
McKinney Christian had their big inning in the bottom of the 2nd. They picked up an RBI double from Connor Jarzombek, a bases loaded walk by Clark that scored Landen Jones and RBI singles by Judd Witte and Nathan McMahon. That gave McKinney Christian a 5-1 lead.
Cypress Christian responded with a run in the 3rd when Ameron Sheikh singled, was sacrificed to 2nd and scored on a throwing error. That cut the lead McKinney Christian lead to 5-2. McKinney Christian got the run back in the 4th on a McMahon RBI single to increase the lead to 6-2
But Cypress Christian dealt the big blow in the top of the 5th. With one out, Drew Mestayer hit a 3B and Cypress Christian batters then put together 5 straight singles getting 3 runs. A bases load HBP and a walk added two more runs, giving Cypress Christian the lead back 7-6. They picked up two ground out RBIs before the inning was over, scoring 7 runs and taking a 9-6 lead.
Cypress Christian picked up another run in the 6th on a Williams RBI to increase the lead to 10-6. McKinney Christian picked up another run in the bottom of the 6th on a Witte Sac Fly to cut the lead to 10-7.
Cypress Christian did not score in the 7th and McKinney Christian had one last chance in their at-bat. Relief Pitcher Warren Haudek, who had entered the game in the 2nd inning to stop the big McKinney Christian rally, came back out to finish the game. He got a fly out and a ground out before walking the next batter. The next batter hit an infield fly which was caught to give the win and state title to Cypress Christian.
Haudek pitched 6 innings in relief. He gave up only 2 runs on 5 hits with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. He was also 2-5 at the plate with an RBI and Run Scored. He was named the THSB Championship Player of the Game.
“It feels really good right now. I never thought we would be here now. No one thought we would be here. One senior, a few juniors, a lot of sophomores and some freshman. We are glad to come out and prove everybody wrong.” On coming in the big second inning with the bases loaded: “We needed to get out of this inning and just do a reset. Get going the next inning.”
Coach David Swan commented: “I am happy for these guys. I know we didn’t show up on anybody’s radar in preseason. We talk about rowing the boat. Everybody rows, working in the same direction. With a common goal and purpose. And these guys did that.” Describing his team: “Resilient. A lot of young guys. 1 senior. But it’s a team that went to work every day. They embraced practice and all the hard work and everything you need to do to be a great team. You are just glad to see all the success they have had.”
THSB Championship Player of the Game
