After a brief rocky start in the first inning, Jake Martinez and the Bay Area Christian Broncos rebounded to beat Lubbock Trinity Christian 3-1 and capture the 2021 TAPPS Division III Baseball State Championship. It was the first baseball state championship for Bay Area Christian.
In the first inning, Martinez gave up a lead off walk to Trinity Christian’s Riley Kettner. After 2 fly outs, Brady Alexander hit a ball that Bay Area Right Fielder Reese Brewer seemed to lose for a moment and couldn’t recover in time to make the catch. Courtesy runner Dayton Osburn scored from first base on the hit giving Trinity Christian the early 1-0 lead. Martinez then hit the next batter before getting a fly out to Brewer to end the inning. After that first inning, Martinez settled down and allowed only three more base runners the rest of the way.
The Bay Area offense got going in the bottom of the 3rd inning. With one out, Trent Rullman got on base by an error. Then with two outs, Bay Area got a single by Jordan Medellin, an RBI double by Lane Escamilla and a single by Martinez that scored both Medellin and Escamilla, giving Bay Area Christian the 3-1 lead. After that lead, Martinez held the Trinity Christian bats at bay retiring the last 7 batters of the game to secure the win.
Martinez finished the game giving up 1 run on 2 hits with 9 Ks and 2 BB. At the plate, he was 1-3 with 2 RBIs. Martinez was named the THSB Divison III State Championship Game MVP.
With the rocky start, Martinez didn’t panic. “I just told myself to just calm down, get focused, trust in my pitches and trust my defense,” Martinez explained.
“Jake Martinez is an absolute bulldog,” Head Coach Kyle Kennedy stated. “Nothing fazes him. He goes after it. I’m so proud of him. This was one of his finest outings of the season.”
Bay Area Christian finished with an impressive 28-4-2 record and breezed through district. But thoughts and expectations of a state tournament began before the season. “Before the season even began, we talked about being here holding the trophy up,” Martinez said.
“I knew before the year we had the right chemistry and the right kind of players to come down here and do this,” Kennedy added. “We knew we had a good shot to win. It was just about execution.”
