LUCAS, Texas-Texas High clinched the District 16-5A baseball championship and top seed in the playoffs, and the Tigers now turn their attention to Lucas Lovejoy for a best-of-three 5A series.
THS won seven in a row to close out district play, two coming Saturday in a seeding tournament with Hallsville and Sulphur Springs.
The Tigers (23-5) and Leopards (18-12) begin their series today at 7 p.m. at Leopard Field. Game 2 will be at 7 p.m. Friday at Tiger Field, and if a third game is needed, it will be played at noon Saturday at Rockwall High School.
"The kids are playing with a lot of confidence," Texas High coach John McClure said. "We kept our end of the bargain down the stretch and got some help (to win the title). We've played good defense and continued to swing the bats well."
The Tigers blanked Sulphur Springs, 5-0, and then pounded Hallsville, 11-2, to wrap the top spot.
Lovejoy snapped a 4-game losing skid in the middle of district play and closed out the regular season taking 5 of 6 wins. The Leopards lost a warmup game to Rockwall.
"From what I hear about them, they're the mirror image of us," McClure said. "They don't have one dominant guy on the mound who's going to strike out double digits. They swing the bat well and play good defense; I don't think they'll be very many strikeouts on either side. Our pitchers need to go compete and let the defense work behind them, like we have been all season."
Pitching for Texas High could be either Walker Davis or Cameron Radney. Caden Dickson handles the catching duties, Dakota Turner will be at first base, Jakob Hearne at second and Cole Christen at third. Chris Sutton plays shortstop for the Tigers.
Rian Cellers is the designated hitter, and the outfield features Adam Quinn in left field, Chris Lyles in center and Conner Allred in right.
"This group has as good a team chemistry as I've seen; they all play hard for each other," McClure said. "They don't care who gets the credit. They're a very selfless bunch."