CL Hawks Baseball vs. Cuero Pre-Game & By the Numbers

                                      Chase Anderson & Griffen Williams going over strategy. (photo by Dennis Rohlmeier)

In the All-Time series CL’s record is 0-6 as these two schools played in the same district and the Hawks were 0-4 during those two seasons.

              Go Hawks & Beat Cuero

Canyon Lake (23-6) will be favored against Cuero Gobblers (8-18) but that should not be an invitation to let your guard down or not being focused.

Simply put it is a team called Bandera that the Hawks had to come back to beat two weeks ago and that Bulldog team finished their season on an 18 game losing streak.

In fact, The Lake has struggled in their final three 2 game series in the first contest. One run wins over Bandera (6-5) and Davenport (7-6) with that loss to Boerne, 7-5. Hence, that could be the reason for Cuero opting for a one game do or die chance.

Cuero finished their season losing 7 of their final 10 games but one of those wins was over 20th Ranked (at the time) Navarro, 7-4 which gives an idea that there are no givens in High School Baseball.

CLHS is presently on a 5 game winning streak and have won 8 of their last 9 battles.

During this 5 game stretch, the Hawks, largest margin of victory was a 12 run blowout against Bandera but those other 4 wins were come from behind outings with Davenport, Bandera and Boerne.

These Gobblers had 3 wins playing 4A schools and was 0-2 when pitted against 5A and five of their 8 victories came against 3A & TAPPS classification schools.

Cuero averaged 4 runs while giving up 7 runs per outing this year.

                         Way to Go Hawks!!

Players to watch are ss/c Brandt Patek who leads the team in rbi’s and third baseman Arthur Barrera will excel in those quality at bats.

There are two players that have the most appearances on their mound. Southpaw Jerry Rossett has 3 of the Gobblers wins and Right-hander Will Davis won two games but Caleb Nagel was the pitcher in Cuero’s win over Navarro which could be another applicant.

With this being a one game elimination a pitching decision is vital for both teams. There is a chance these Gobblers might use more than one pitcher and that can help keep The Lake guessing when coming to the plate.

Canyon Lake has had trouble facing lefties this season for another variable Cuero Coaches will look at for their decision.

The Hawks have developed players down the batting order that seem to be in sync during the right time of the year. In those two Davenport wins, it was that part of the lineup that kept CL in both games, by keeping the score close enough for an awakening, during those later innings.

           Congrats & Way to Go Hawks!!

Pitching has not been as dominant as they were when this year started, but in that trinity of offense-defense-pitching it has been the defense that has not been at its peak or consistent.

Of the 91 runs scored against Canyon Lake 41 have been unearned which is almost half and that will be a need for CL to continue playing during this post-season. Those innings affect pitching in obvious ways by increasing the number of pitches which can be a big detriment. Keeping an inning alive for a chance to have more opportunities for runs.

A good sign is seeing the advancement of Luke Roskin being a go-to reliever and the biggest difference between last year’s Peyton McMullen and Roskin are walks allowed.

Roskin’s control trumps McMullen’s who did not give up hits but kept a lot of his outings with people biting fingernails.

During this time of the season those little things add up much quicker and eliminating those rough spots helps in securing a better chance for another game.

Cuero is a beatable team but focus from that first pitch to the last pitch will be key in not allowing an upset especially playing one game when there are no do-overs.

Let’s GO HAWKS!!

                            BY THE NUMBERS 
 0 The number of times CL has beaten Cuero.
 2 Top-10 records that still has Coach Walker as #1. (Runs scored & Doubles)
 3 Current Hawks are on the Top-10 for HBP: Schultz-Greene-Sellers.
 4 Current players top-10 at bats category (Schultz-Anderson Chase-Hunter-Sellers)
 5 Is the Average hits The Lake has allowed this season.
 6 Losses this year is the fewest amount for the regular season.
 7 Different Hawks have homered this season.
 8 Playoff wins Canyon Lake presently have.
 9 Times in a row that Tanner Schultz presently has reached base.
10 Wins Canyon Lake has against Wimberley.
13 Times The Hawks have scored 10 or more runs tied with last year’s team.
15 Wins The Lake has against Bandera.
18 Game hitting streak Chase Anderson had this season.