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Best of the Best: A look back at District 8-5A baseball
BY Kevin Hageland, Justin Thomas and Matt Welch, Staff Writers
The past two years were a special time for the athletics wing of the Plano, Allen and Lewisville ISDs.
In joining forces under the District 8-5A umbrella, Plano East, Plano Senior, Plano West, Allen, Flower Mound, Flower Mound Marcus, Lewisville and Hebron combined for 28 UIL State Championships, many more state tournament or state meet appearances, a laundry list of all-state selections and an environment as competitive as any in the state.
As a way of paying homage to the past two years of district play, The Leader is running a retrospective series highlighting five of the best games played within 8-5A for football, volleyball, boys basketball, girls basketball, girls soccer, boys soccer, baseball and softball.
"It was a great district," said Rick Robertson, Plano head coach. "You had to bring your best every night and we knew that going in."
In a district where already-intense rivalries were ratcheted up a notch, rallies, upsets and celebratory performances became the norm for any evening contested on the 8-5A diamond.
"When you look at baseball, some of the most storied programs in all the Metroplex were in this district," said Kevin Clark, West head coach. "It was an amazing district, which also makes it a shame because you knew the fifth and sixth place teams would be ones that could make the playoffs in any other district."
Here's a look back on the highlights (in chronological order) of the past two years.
Hebron defeats Plano East, 4-3
April 15, 2011
Some games are great because of their overall level for the duration while others reach that status because of one particular play or sequence of events.
Consider this game part of the latter category.
Hebron entered the contest on a seven-game winning streak, but faced off against a Plano East squad that was the last to beat them. It appeared the Panthers would drop the Hawks once more as they held a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh.
Hebron's Travis Koch, who was 0-for-3 up to that point, would say otherwise.
With runners on first and second base with one out, Koch drove a grounder into left field. Ryan Mohan rounded third to score for the Hawks with Travis Stone not far behind. Stone was waved home and the throw went over East catcher Clark Kahawaii's head to tie the game. Grabbing the overthrow, East pitcher Jacob De La Cruz attempted to gun Koch out as he went for third. His throw, however, went off a glove and into the outfield, allowing Koch to come all the way home for the 4-3 victory.
"That's the biggest hit of my life right there," Koch said after the game. "I was just glad to contribute to the win. I was having a rough night and to come back like that was really special for me."
"It was crazy," added Steve Stone, Hebron head coach. "That was basically like a Little League home run."
Hebron went on to tie for the district title with Plano.
"Baseball is a funny game; sometimes you love it, sometimes you hate it and sometimes you love to hate it," Stone said. "Our guys were always scratching and clawing until the end that season and we were fortunate to win that one."
Plano West defeats Allen, 15-14
April 15, 2011
It's lucky this game took place on a Friday because festivities weren't wrapped up until nearly midnight.
"It was wild," Clark said. "Just one of those classic high school games."
This contest didn't have the makings of a classic early though as Allen established a 12-4 lead by the third inning thanks in part to the contributions of Ian Delaney (three hits, two RBIs), Ryan Hope, Cody Semler and Kyle Schatzel (three RBIs each) and Jacob Martinez (three runs and five walks).
"It was so fast," Clark said, "which I guess was kind of good because then it didn't seem like we were getting hammered every inning."
With cross-the-board production, West started its climb back.
"We got two runs in one inning and then three and then another three," Clark said. "We just kept coming and you could feel the momentum building while the boys were getting more and more excited."
Credit West pitcher Ryan Goldblatt for keeping the game within reach as he entered in the fifth and help the Wolves reach extra innings.
Goldblatt was relieved by Garrett Bruce, who had started the game and gotten rocked.
"Garrett came to us," Clark said. "He said he was feeling good and wanted the ball; you gotta love a kid like that with the fire to compete."
Tough start aside, Bruce ended the night as the winning pitcher after West scored three runs in the 10th for a 15-14 victory.
"We didn't have the most successful run in district that year," Clark said, "but every time we played Allen the boys were always amped up."
That was proven again a year later when West beat Allen, 14-13.
Allen defeats Plano Senior, 4-2
March 13, 2012
Allen made quite the declarative statement to open district play this past season.
For two teams whose 8-5A records were practically reversed in 2011, the Eagles sparked what would be an ongoing theme with a late-game rally to stun the reigning district champs on the road.
"It was huge for us and a big morale booster for the kids," said Paul Coe, Allen head coach. "It was good to go out and prove that we could hang with the big guys and that win got us on a nice role to begin district."
Seemingly out of nowhere, the Allen bats woke up after going silent from the fourth inning on and not so much as putting a ball in the outfield until the seventh inning.
Tied, 2-2, the Eagles broke the game open with a two-run, three-hit outburst with two outs in the final frame. Andrew Baldwin knocked home Anthony Samuel and scored himself following an on-field miscommunication as to whether Connor Reed had his foot on the bag in a 6-3 groundout. With no signal given from the umpire, the ball was still in play and Baldwin capitalized to score the Eagles' insurance run. The outfielder went 2-of-4 with two RBIs and two runs in the district-opening upset.
"It let people know Allen was ready to play some baseball again," Coe said.
Plano Senior defeats Plano West, 2-1
March 30, 2012
In a district with few guarantees, nothing was more certain than Plano and West locking horns for a competitive game, regardless of how up or down each team was.
Despite having won the past four installments of the rivalry, the Wildcats' margin of victory has been just 1.25 runs.
Therefore, it was no shocker that in 2012's first meeting, Plano and West battled into extra innings still gridlocked at 0-0.
With neither offense able to crack Bruce or Plano's Connor Reed on the bump, the Wildcats finally broke through in the top of the eighth behind a home run from Cody Farhat, playing in just his second varsity game.
"We had brought Cody up and he had been a good spark for us," Robertson said. "I think him hitting that home run really helped set us up for a big run in that second round of district."
An RBI by Matt McLean extended that lead.
The Wolves made things interesting in their half of the inning with a Connor Smith RBI and runners on the corners, but a game-ending double play dashed any hopes of a West comeback.
"It's a different rivalry than the Plano-Plano East rivalry," Robertson said. "One reason is that a lot of these kids went to school together at Jasper and were in the same classes. Then some were going to West and some to Plano. It's still a strange sight in the stands seeing those two student sections cheering for their team, yet they may be sitting right there with somebody from the other team who they previously went to school with."
Flower Mound defeats Flower Mound Marcus, 1-0
April 5, 2012
With aces Cody Gunter and Colin Poche' toeing the rubber for Flower Mound and Marcus, respectively, many anticipated a low-scoring affair between these two rivals.
What they got was a pair of strikeout performances for the ages.
Neither the Jaguars nor Marauders were able to scratch across a run in the first seven innings, forcing extras with Poche and Gunter not only matching zeros, but surrendering just three hits apiece and racking up 16 strikeouts each.
"It was a heck of a game," said Marte Amrine, former Flower Mound head coach. "Both pitchers had everything working and had it working the whole way. Cody struck out two of the first three hitters he faced and Colin came out for Marcus and struck out our first three batters."
The lone run came when Flower Mound's MacKay Jacobsen doubled in Connor Wanhanen, who had reached after being hit by a pitch.
"It was very exciting" Amrine said, "and fortunately we were able to scratch a run across in the eighth."
Both squads went on to qualify for the playoffs.
Scouts also took notice of the starting pitcher performances as both Poche and Gunter were selected in the 2012 MLB First-Year Player Draft. Poche' went on the second day of the draft as his rights were snagged by the Baltimore Orioles (162nd overall), while Gunter was selected in the 19th round by the Miami Marlins (587th).
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