Baseball: Canyon Lake Hawk’s Sales Pitch!
Hunter Anderson bringing the heat. rr[Photo Credit: Mark Robinson / MJR]
CANYON LAKE’S SALES PITCH
The Hawks baseball program has had several bleak years since that second season Area Finalist team during the 2010 season. That club had some good pitchers and a decent line-up able to score runs that helped lead this club past Devine in Bi-District and then taking Hidalgo to a best of three loss with a chance to win in that last inning of play.
That would be the high mark for the next 8 years until the 2018 team was able to reach a playoff spot as the 4th seed and quick one game exit against Wimberley. This crew reached the 12 win plateau that had a team .215 batting average to go with a 5.41 era from the pitching side.
Senior Avery Montgomery reached 80 innings and had a respectable 3.31 era with 6 wins that year. Sophomore Matt Anderson was next pitching 31 innings but still had some control problems keeping him tied with JT Greene with 2 wins. That would be the second most for that year.
CL had some Freshman during the 2017 year that would grow up into a decent 2020 group that could beat any team not named Covid, finishing with a 12-2 record that was left without a chance to see how far that season might have gone.
In 2017, Freshman Matt Anderson, had one official at bat that was recorded and a base on ball plate appearance that season. Anderson did not pitch that year. Freshman Brandon Robinson and Mason Lee did not make the varsity as they were both being relegated to Junior Varsity play only.
One Freshman with an impact was Caleb Williams who was promoted primarily based on how well he played defense in the outfield. Williams finished his first year of varsity with a .169 batting average which happened to be the 5th best average for that team.
Cale Claycomb was another freshman that turned some heads on the pitching mound with a team best 4.00 era a win and two saves. If that does not sound impressive then take into account that this team finished with 3 wins. That will show you that Claycomb was instrumental in all three victories.
Recap Freshman on the 2017 Varsity Roster:
Ethan Slater used as a pinch runner with one run scored. Anderson with one official plate appearance and reaching base with a walk.
Claycomb reached the batter’s box 6 times with no hits and one rbi while scoring 2 runs and the numbers mentioned earlier for Williams.
BATTING ab r h bi 2b 3b hr bb so ave obp .slg
2017 Freshman 66 7 10 3 2 0 0 5 18 .152 .233 .197
2020 Seniors 224 57 66 47 8 2 4 42 59 .295 .451 .402
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PITCHING ip h r er bb so era W L S
2017 Freshman 28.1 35 24 16 14 24 3.98 1 0 2
2020 Seniors 42.0 29 22 9 30 49 1.49 3 1 0
Canyon Lake allowed a total of 24 runs in 14 games and in 2020 with no opponent able to record 4 runs in those 14 outings.
Now that is a sales pitch for what might be in store for this coming season that has peaked some interest locally for what could be a break-out year on the diamond.
The Hawks will still have a lot of young talent ready for action with the two main pitchers still having availability with Senior Tyler Pauly and Junior Tanner Schultz.
These two players had a combined .026 earned run average (era) and 8 of the 12 wins last year.
Add a bevy of Sophomore’s with more players prepared for an Arms Race that should help in replacing last year’s Seniors (Claycomb & Anderson).
Pitching can carry a team at any level but for a high school schedule having abundant Arms will help when district starts when there are just two games a week allowing pitchers to rest their arms for the next battle.
Needing help in games that a team might pose a problem, The Lake, has enough pitching to stop a rally and during those middle innings allowing CL’s offense time to stage a comeback and a possible win.
One last thought for this ‘Arms Race’ comes from a limited number of games played by the Hawks Junior Varsity.
Canyon Lake’s JV was able to play two district opponents that has been perennial tough outs in district play in past seasons. Beating Boerne and Fredericksburg with two game sweeps gave a good indication that the barn is full for this year and future years coming up.
An Arms Race is imperative and will certainly not guarantee a win but after a year that had Canyon Lake’s defense having their best performance ever with a .960 fielding percentage and having an offense that was also tops in all time averages will help during those outing that pitching might not be in a groove.
TOP 3 BATTING & FIELDING HAWK TEAMS
Batting Average Fielding Average
1) 2020 .286 1) 2020 .964
2) 2009 .283 2) 2019 .928
3) 2019 .269 3) 2018 .904
At this writing, there are 26 days left before Canyon Lake will battle Cuero in their first exhibition game starting at Noon on February 6th.
Let the Count Down begin and Go Hawks!!
