H.S. baseball: Stephenville battles Canyon Randall in Region I-4A championship series

Small ball has paid big dividends for the Stephenville baseball team.

It’s one of the reasons that the Yellow Jackets will make their third straight region finals appearance this week, when they take on Canyon Randall.

Of course, in an era when it seems to be all about the long ball, getting teenagers to bunt can be a challenge. It was a hard sell for Stephenville coach Justin Swenson.

“It took us a while to establish it,” Swenson said. “Now, people come in and know it’s our style. When something’s been successful, it’s hard to argue against.”

It’s certainly worked for the Yellow Jackets, who did it well enough in 2021 to earn the program’s first state tournament appearance.

“Oh yeah, we love it,” Swenson said. “That’s how we’ve gotten by here the last eight years. We like to put pressure on people and hope they blink and make a mistake.”

Texarkana Pleasant Grove beat the Yellow Jackets 13-0 in five innings in the 2021 state semifinals en route to winning it all.

Stephenville, which was beaten by Arygle 8-1 and 4-0 in the region finals last year, has been aching to get back since.

“We got a little taste of it, and it was addicting,” Swenson said of the state tournament. “It’s been on our mind ever since, and we didn’t have a showing when we got down there. We want to get back down and have a better performance for sure.”

No Argyle, no problem, right?

Arygle, a Class 4A state power, made the move to Class 5A this season.

The Eagles are playing in a region final for the fifth straight year. They won state titles in 2018 and 2019, while COVID-19 wiped out the playoffs in 2020.

Stephenville ended Argyle’s run in 2021 – beating the Eagles 2-0 and 6-1 in the Region I-4A finals.

No Argyle this year, no problem, right?

Not so fast.

Randall (35-3) – a state semifinalist in 2007 – made the drop to Class 4A this season, and the Raiders have been impressive in their run to the region final – sweeping Levelland (7-3, 9-3), Bowie (21-2, 13-0), Hereford (1-0, 13-3) and Wichita Falls High (16-1, 6-0).

“We thought that we kind of escaped one and then here comes another one,” Swenson said. “But you want a good team to come out of Region I to represent us. I’m glad we got a good matchup this weekend.”

Game 1 of the best-of-three series will be 7 p.m. Thursday at Christensen Stadium in Midland. Game 2 will be 11 a.m. Friday at Midland Greenwood High School. Game 3, if needed, would follow Game 2.

Defensive-minded Jackets

Stephenville (27-12-1), which has no players from the 2021 team, got here by beating Levelland (12-0, 13-2), Krum (3-1, 3-2), Graham (10-0, 10-7) and Midland Greenwood (6-3, 9-2).

Pitching and defense are the Yellow Jackets’ strengths.

“Very solid defensively,” Swenson said. “We’re averaging less than one error per game since midway through district. Pitchers are doing a good job of throwing strikes and letting the defense play behind them.”

Offensively, the Yellow Jackets, who have only three seniors, thrive when leadoff batter K.B. Bowman gets on base. He has scored 13 runs in the playoffs.

“We have to get the leadoff guy on and then it’s going to be old-fashioned ball from there,” Swenson said. “Bunt them over to second, steal a base or whatever and then drive them home.”

It doesn’t usually take many runs for Stephenville either – not with Luke Heller on the mound.

“Our No. 1 has a sub-one ERA,” Swenson said. “So, I feel good if we can get two or three runs across. It gets us a good chance to win. Randall won’t give us any extra swings. They’re going to make all the plays defensively, and they’ll throw strikes.”

Gridirons and diamonds

Baseball hasn’t always been a big deal in Stephenville, which is known for its football. Yet that’s changed recently for Swenson, who is in his eighth year with the Yellow Jackets.

“The year that we went to the state tournament that was the first class that started playing a little bit of travel ball,” he said. “It’s getting better. Now, we’ve got a couple of different travel squads in our own city. It’s getting to be a more important sport around here.”

Now, the Stephenville faithful are used to success on the baseball diamond. And the Yellow Jackets have a chance to make more history this weekend.

“I told the kids, there’s high expectations on this group now,” Swenson said. “But that’s a good thing. When you have high expectations, that means you’ve been doing good things. We’ve kind of spoiled some people the last couple of years. We’ve had some good kids come through, and they work, they enjoy the grind of it. They’re just winners, and that’s what the city of Stephenville produces. If you have that, you can win in any sport.”

REGION I-4A FINALS

Stephenville (27-12-1) vs. Canyon Randall (35-3)

Game 1 − 7 p.m. Thursday, Christensen Stadium, Midland

Game 2 − 11 a.m. Friday, Midland Greenwood

Game 3 − 30 minute after Game 2, if necessary