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May 27, 2009

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Bulldogs clicking on all cylinders as playoff run reaches region semis

By Tom Waddill

NEW WAVERLY — Rhett Bohannon believes the Bulldogs have the talent to get to the state baseball tournament. The lone senior on New Waverly’s district-championship team, Bohannon says he’s not thinking about a trip to Austin right now.

He’s trying to focus on one pitch, and one game at a time, and hoping his teammates do the same.

“We’re in uncharted territory right here,” the slick-fielding shortstop said during a break in practice Wednesday. “We went to the playoffs last year, but we’ve never been this deep in baseball — not for a long time anyway. I’d say that’s our only weakness. We just don’t have a ton of experience at this stage in the playoffs.”

That may not matter much with this bunch of Bulldogs. New Waverly (23-3) can pitch, hit and play defense with all 15 of the teams left in the Class 2A field.

Starting tonight in the opening game of a best-of-three Region III semifinal series against seventh-ranked White Oak, Bohannon says the Bulldogs simply need to concentrate on the job in front of them and stop thinking about the regional finals or a trip to the University of Texas’ Disch-Falk Field next month.

“We can play baseball with any team. As long as we go out and play our best game, we’re going to be a tough out,” Bohannon said.

The Bulldogs have been playing some good baseball since starting the postseason early last week. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity to get the playoffs going, New Waverly rolled over Deweyville 15-2 in the area round, then the Dogs swept a series from Shelbyville without much trouble.

“I think we’ve got the momentum going again now,” sophomore first baseman Tate Maddox said. “We run-ruled Deweyville, then we run-ruled Shelbyville. We finished that series by winning a close game last Saturday. We’re playing much better as a team right now.”

That’s a good thing, coach Tommy Bohannon said, because the Bulldogs will need to play close-to-perfect baseball this weekend to reach the Region III finals.

“We know we have to play our best baseball in the playoffs up to this point,” coach Bohannon said. “I feel like our kids are ready to do that. White Oak seems to be pretty well-rounded defensively and pitching-wise. Offensively, they have some weapons, too. We saw their catcher, who’s a big, strong kid, hit one about 400 feet against Franklin last weekend, the home run that put them up 5-2 and gave them some cushion in a close game.

“When there are only 16 teams left, everybody’s got to be pretty good,” the coach added. “If we’re on our game and they’re on their game, naturally it’s going to be a great series.”

White Oak, ranked seventh in the state and the runner-up from District 18-2A, swept a bi-district series from Jefferson 6-3 and 16-2 before edging Nacogdoches Central Heights 5-4 in a one-game area contest. Last weekend, the Roughnecks swept Franklin 11-4 and 5-2 to advance to the Region III semifinals.

Coach Bohannon and a few of the Bulldogs snuck over and saw the last four innings of White Oak’s victory over Franklin last Saturday. He said the Roughnecks probably won’t make as many costly mistakes.

“Their pitchers did a good job keeping the ball around the plate. They’re not going to beat themselves by putting people on base,” the Bulldogs coach said. “We’re going to have to earn our runs. If we get any extra chances, we know those will be at a premium so we’re going to have to make the most of those opportunities.”

The Dogs say they are ready for the challenge that starts tonight and continues Saturday afternoon in Pollok.

“All of our pitchers can shut anybody out,” Maddox said of the Dogs’ four-man rotation of Matt Roberts, Cole Bohannon, Matt Gray and Ryan Reyes. “We’ve just got to keep our minds in the game and play solid defense behind our pitchers.”

Eli Amador added, “We’ve got to play hard, and to the end. We need to keep putting the bat on the ball, throw strikes and play good defense. Those are the secrets.

“I feel like we can go to state as long as we play like we’ve been playing. ... We’ve got no weaknesses at all. Our pitchers can put the ball wherever they want. They can blow it by anybody, but they’re also able to slow it down and keep hitters off balance. We just want to keep this thing going.”

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