Cypress Christian Prevails in Slugfest, Takes Division III Baseball State Title

		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 1^st.  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 3^rd 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 2^nd.  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 3^rd when Ameron Sheikh singled, was sacrificed to 2^nd and scored on a throwing error.  That cut the lead McKinney Christian lead to 5-2.  McKinney Christian got the run back in the 4^th on a McMahon RBI single to increase the lead to 6-2

But Cypress Christian dealt the big blow in the top of the 5^th.  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 6^th on a Williams RBI to increase the lead to 10-6.  McKinney Christian picked up another run in the bottom of the 6^th on a Witte Sac Fly to cut the lead to 10-7.

Cypress Christian did not score in the 7^th and McKinney Christian had one last chance in their at-bat.  Relief Pitcher Warren Haudek, who had entered the game in the 2^nd 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