CL Hawks Fare Well in Baseball Scrimmage with Cuero
Hawks are days away before games start to count. [Photo Credit: Mark Robinson / MJR Photography / www.mjrphotog.com]
Canyon Lake’s much anticipated start for this year’s baseball season started with a good result after their scrimmage with Cuero last Saturday. These Gobblers brought a lot of players back from a 20-13 season and are no slouch in their previous campaigns.
Let’s Go Hawks!!
This match-up against the Hawks has a polar opposite comparison in records of the two schools. Canyon Lake has been working on getting off the mat for several years and this might be the season some of those marked improvements start to materialize.
CL made the playoffs two years ago after spending those 7 previous seasons with a couple of close calls but nothing to hang your hat on. The Lake had their best season in 2010 and a playoff contest 2 years ago that did not end well against Wimberley.
Baseball has three needs for realizing a decent season.
Pitching, hitting, and fielding would be those requirements and this scrimmage would show an A+ from that hitting department.
“Offensively, Brandon Robinson had two doubles, Caleb Williams had two doubles and one triple, Tanner Schultz had two hits and Ty Sellers a triple,” Head Coach Victor Escamilla said.
That speaks well from the, hit for power or slugging percentage category, for The Lake. Last season Canyon Lake had a .343 slugging percentage after totaling 33 extra base hits.
Just in this one 9 inning scrimmage, CL was able to reach 6 hits that did not have the runner stopping on first base.
Go Hawks!!
After a season of having 5 players ending their campaign with an average over .250 this type of showing can help in making the line-up more lethal when getting past those first few players that had an average above .300 in a season.
CL has had to find other means in reaching base and reducing those harder to come by passes to first base would be a welcome sight for this upcoming season. That certainly played out after scoring 14 runs in this Cuero Scrimmage.
Pitching has a chance of making a statement with a slew of players that will be vying for a chance to represent the Hawks on the mound.
“We scrimmaged nine innings,” Coach Escamilla continued. “Tanner (Schultz), Matt (Anderson), Tyler (Pauly), Cale (Claycomb) each pitched two innings and Peyton (McMullen) pitched one inning. Pitching was ok. But our defense was a bit shaky when our pitchers weren’t in command.”
Canyon City Grill says Go Hawks!!
You cannot take these numbers to the bank based on this being the first scrimmage and having coaches working a lot of different looks throughout those innings, but from the outside looking in, CL has several players on the wings with a chance to prove they belong on the Varsity.
With 16 hits and scoring 14 runs, has to make this a good opening for a team that had the mantra, ‘manufacturing runs’, as a go to phrase for the past 10 years.
“It was a good practice session for our guys,” Coach Escamilla said plainly.
To help give a perspective on how these past few years have transpired, The ReSporter, will go back in time and share those stats that will help in showing what has been stumbling blocks in reaching the playoffs.
That word (playoff) has been a part of CL’s lexicon only two times since the Hawk Baseball team was formed back during that 2008 season.
TEAM: BATTING — PITCHING — FIELDING Average On Base % Slugging ERA Fielding 2019 .275 .391 .342 3.75 .928 2018 .215 .367 .257 5.41 .904 2017 .163 .283 .188 5.38 .861 2016 .211 .327 .267 6.43 .871
Those numbers speaks volumes in helping to grasp the mountain that is in front of this 2020 upcoming season. The only thoughts of making playoffs in the past have only come in dreams and seeing the improvement in last year’s averages and those previous 3 years can give a snapshot that would not require 2020 vision.
What could be in store for this year’s games will be unveiled soon and Canyon Lake will hope that those dreams can become real and not nightmares.
Let’s Go Hawks!!
