I prefer driving on the interstate than state highways; I get that from my granddad who called it the super slab.
However, I would rather not drive in or through the Dallas Metroplex. I don't know if that has anything to do with the fact that all of my siblings live in or around the metroplex or not, but that's a different story.
So of the dozen or so trips I have made to the Austin area for work-related coverage of state tournaments involving local and area teams, I believe I have gone across Lake Ray Hubbard twice. For that particular trek, I prefer to take the path less taken, enjoy some scenery along the way, and even change up my routes from trip to trip.
Pleasant Grove did something similar en route to winning the third state baseball championship in school history on Thursday.
No, I don't mean they went through Athens and Corsicana to bypass the 635 bypass. This was just a different type of season for the Hawks than the two previous championships.
In 2010, PG lost just two games all season: McKinney Boyd and Hallsville. Before the time of a 6A Classification, Boyd was 5A, Hallsville was 4A and Pleasant Grove 3A. The Hawks won the district title, their third regional championship in a row and beat Giddings, 2-0 in nine innings, for the title.
In 2012, Pleasant Grove was again the district champion, claimed its fifth straight regional title (of six in a row), were unbeaten in the playoffs and blanked West, 4-0, in the championship game.
This season, the Hawks were runners-up to Liberty-Eylau in the District 15-4A race. PG lost the opener of a best-of-3 series twice in the playoffs, meaning it had faced elimination four times before the regional semifinals. Pleasant Grove went on to win eight in a row to close out the season.
The Hawks edged L-E for the Region II-4A championship and berth to the state tournament. Of the teams qualified for this year's 4A state semifinals, PG and top-ranked Sinton were each making their 10th appearance. Rusk and Stephenville, which was riding an 18-game win streak into the state tournament, were both in the state tournament for the first time.
The Hawks just about put Stephenville away in the first inning of the first game, when Blake Jennings threw just four pitches to reture the side, and the Yellowjackets' ace threw 34 before recording the third out - trailing 4-0. He didn't make it out of the third frame, and Pleasant Grove went on to win 13-0 in 4 1-2 innings.
Rusk upset the Pirates, 6-3, in the other semifinal to set up an all-East Texas championship.
The Eagles scored first, another turn that PG had never recovered from in a state final: coming from behind.
However, these Hawks took the curves with ease, scoring the tying run on a squeeze bunt and the go-ahead run on a flyball in foul territory-turned-sac fly once JM Long tagged on the popout to the Rusk first baseman and scored easily before the throw to the plate.
Coe Blain, who had come on in relief in the first inning for Pleasant Grove and stranded runners at the corners with a strikeout, earned MVP honors in the championship game with 6 1-3 innings of 1-hit relief.
This PG team took a different route to get to the same destination. These players continued to improve everyday, they worked on turning any weaknesses into strengths, they played hard and played for one another.
That's never the wrong path to take.