Pre-Game Area Round: CL Hawks vs. Needville Blue Jays
Going to War in hopes that Hawks Trump Blue Jays!! (photo by Dennis Rolhmeier)
Pre-Game: CL Hawks vs. Needville Thursday-Friday 7:00p La Grange if 3rd game is necessary then a 1pm Saturday start in La Grange.
Canyon Lake will face the Blue Jays for the Area Round just like last year but this time each school is ranked which shows just how tough Region IV has become.
Let’s Hawk Beat the Blue Jays!!
District 25-4A was top heavy having NHS and Sweeny atop their district and CL’s District 28-4A swept District 27-4A and still had a Fredeicksburg team that finished 5th in district but if put in another district could have finished first or second.
A deep district might give The Lake a decent chance in this match-up with each week needing to play well enough to keep in step for a chance to qualify.
Needville, when adding up win-loss records from each game played those teams reached 368 wins. That flip side had two more losses (370) for a strength of schedule right at .500 ball. The Blue Jays district is to blame for that finished product.
Sweeny (26-4) and Needville (23-5) both were head and shoulders better than those other 5 schools with Columbia being the only other school that did not have a losing record…they broke even with a, 14-14 finish.
There was one common opponent in Brazosport winning those two battles, 5-1 & 5-3. Canyon Lake played the Exporters in their tournament and won that game, 15-2.
The Hawks had a 1.000 On Base Percentage in that tourney game and Griffen Williams was CL’s pitcher giving up 2 hits with both runs unearned.
Brazosport were playing their 2nd game at the Comal Clash Tournament which usually means your facing the 2nd best pitcher.
Needville has a deep pitching staff with 8 different players that have notched a win. There are two players Ryan Rodriguez and Kody Gibbs that look to be their workhorses.
Rodriguez got the win against Sweeny in their first matchup in a classic pitcher’s dual with Nail pitching for Sweeny. The game went 8 innings and Rodriguez had enough in his tank to finish with that huge win.
Gibbs was used in that 2nd game with Sweeny and the Blue Jays were holding onto for a 2-1 lead but a 5 run 5th inning led to a loss and a tie for district play.
Hawk Proud!!
NHS has 5 seniors that have helped in crafting this season with some solid work.
Outfielder Cole Todd is one of the leaders in hits and has a good eye at the plate meaning a chance reaching base via a walk. If this player is on then he will pose as a tough out.
Infielder Bryce Nirider is a good contact hitter and hasn’t walked much and will be another quality batter.
Senior Kody Gibbs has been mentioned as a pitcher and he has had timely hits knocking in runs this year.
Junior Bo Spitdowksi will be another batter that is able to get on base in multiple ways needing CL pitchers to be focused.
Simply put, this Needville team is ranked for a reason and Canyon Lake will need to be on to pull out this series.
The Hawks have a lot of weapons as well and will playing a tougher district schedule prepare this team compared to Needville being up basically for just two games with Sweeny that they split.
Go Hawks & You Don’t Need-ville!!
Canyon Lake had a similar opponent in Boerne which was a split too and do those other dogfights in District 28-4A sway this series to Canyon Lake.
Needville was 4-2 in games decided by 2 runs or less while Canyon Lake had a 7-4 record and 3 of those wins were against Boerne (#2), Central Catholic (#3), and London (#1) at the time those battles were waged.
That will be the what might give Canyon Lake an edge and another week of post-season play.
Let’s GO HAWKS!!
