The No. 2 Wall baseball team has unfinished business with the state championship game

The No. 2 Wall Hawks baseball team is used to big moments now.

After a historic run last season, where they lost a close game to No. 1 Boyd 6-4 in the state championship game , the Hawks felt they had more to prove. The team has lofty expectations this year, but first-year coach Jeremy Gordon stresses taking the season one day at a time.

One of those days was a sunny Thursday afternoon — coincidentally the opening day of the MLB season — with the Hawks hosting a crucial District 6-3A matchup against Clyde.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth inning, senior Will Scherr stepped to the plate. The Hawks scored earlier on a three-run homer from Matthew Steen, but the Bulldogs scored a run of their own, putting the pressure back on Wall to answer.

On an 0-2 count with no outs, Scherr rocked a fastball past the left outfield fence almost hitting the visiting football bleachers, which stand about 30 feet past the fence, for a grand slam — shattering the Bulldogs' confidence.

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The dugout cleared while Scherr rounded third as the Hawks took a commanding 9-1 lead. One inning later, Wall finished off Clyde by run rule 11-1 in a far cry from Tuesday's outcome. Earlier in the week, the Bulldogs suffered a 1-0 loss in the Hawks Nest.

"Our offense had been struggling to be quite honest," Gordon said. "Yesterday pretty much the only focus of practice was offense and we really tried to dial our swings back in... we were able to make the adjustments, so all in all very pleased with what I saw offensively today."

Wall (20-3, 6-0) is currently ranked second in the 3A Diamond Pro/THSB Top 25, trailing Boyd. Clyde was the first team to challenge Wall in its district game. In their six district matchups, the Hawks outscored opponents 91-5 — often winning by run rule.

The Hawks like to take advantage of every opportunity and get ahead of teams — a lesson learned from last season.

Last year, the Hawks' impressive run to the state championship game felt like a Cinderella story. They were the young team playing over expectations in their coach's last season, which often led to some stressful wins and heartbreaking losses.

This year, though, the attitude and tone are much different without the underdog title and more expectations.

"I'm not gonna lie to you, it's stressful," Gordon said. "There's a lot of pressure that goes with being a first-year head coach and following a legend like Jason Schniers. But these guys know how to play the game. So, I really focus on our culture and doing things the right way."

Feeling the pressure of being one of the top teams, Gordon relies on senior leadership from Scherr and Hallmark to set the tone and keep a team with a lot of sophomores and juniors focused.

"Our team goal, our motto is to win the day," Scherr said. "We can't look back at what we did last year and we can't think we're going to automatically get in (to state) because Region 1 is really tough. You have to win each game and win each practice."

One of the Region I teams the Hawks will likely face if they plan on making it to the state title game again is No. 7 Brock. Wall took out the Eagles last season in the regional final sweeping them with two blowout victories. However, Brock got early revenge this year with an 11-1 win and sits at 15-2 with their only losses to ranked 4A teams like Springtown and Benbrook.

While the Hawks want to stay focused on what is directly in front of them, it would be impossible to expect a team that came so close to winning a state championship to feel satisfied with anything except a title.

"I told these guys from day one, this is your ride," Gordon said. "On the back of all of our pregame shirts it says 'unfinished business,' and that's not my business that was left unfinished. So, they kind of took that upon themselves as that to really kind of be the team motto."

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This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: The No. 2 Wall baseball team has unfinished business with the state championship game