KILGORE, Texas-Maud's current baseball players are in the fourth round for the first time in their prep careers.
The eighth-ranked Cardinals survived a tough Union Grove team in a one-game showdown last week to advance to this week's Region III-2A semifinal series against Lovelady.
"Lovelady is a pretty scrappy ball club; I would describe them as an old school ball club," Maud coach Scott Sanders said. "They've got veteran coaches, who have been very successful. They do all the little things you need to do right: they bunt the ball a lot, they make the routine plays, and try to keep pressure on you."
Jake McDonald will start on the mound for Maud (19-7), and Triston Carlow will catch. Kendall Mathis starts at first base, Brooks Minter is at second, Gage Jones at shortstop and Logan Hemby at third. The outfield features Cade Townsend in left field, Conner Morton in center and Rylie Martin in right. Matt Smith is the designated hitter.
McDonald tossed a 1-hitter in the 1-0 win over Union Grove last week, and the Cardinals played flawless defense behind him.
"We need to continue pitching and playing defense well," Sanders said. "We have done that throughout the playoffs thus far, and we need to continue that. We had an outstanding performance from McDonald last week. I hope to get that and get some more pitchers, who haven't pitched in a couple of weeks, step up and win us some ballgames."
Hemby, Martin and Townsend are other pitchers Sanders could start on the mound.
The Cardinals have qualified for the state tournament seven times, the last being in 2004.
"We've got a pretty storied history here, but we've been on a drought here lately," the Cardinal coach said. "The last there years, we've lost out in the third round, so that was a big mental block and a bit of a monkey off our backs, winning in the third round. We felt, in years past, like we had teams good enough to get past the third round, but for whatever reason things fell apart for us."
The winner of the series advances to the regional finals to play either Harleton (22-7) or second-ranked Beckville (28-1-1). The regional championship and berth to the state tournament will be on the line next week.