Hawk’s Ali Valadez dribbles ball in hopes for a Hawk scoring opportunity in tie with SAC. (photo by Kimberly Bell)
The Canyon Lake went to battle against San Antonio Christian for the 3rd time in a season that the Hawks have completed 7 contests.
Catcher Dalton Stanley is so good he can catch with eyes closed. rr[Photo Credit: Mark Robinson / MJR
Texas High School Baseball (THSB) has released this year’s Preseason Top 20 with Canyon Lake on the outside looking in.
Zachary Elson & Travis Parma take a breather waiting for their next match during the Fall Campaign.
Part III for the Canyon Lake Spring Sports will continue with a preview for Tennis and Golf.
The Hawks started a Fall Tennis a couple of years back so this is the only sport to have a team playing in the Fall and Spring with different set-ups.
Katy Taliaferro feeds an assist to Kaitlyn Cox in win over Davenport, 24-23.
WHAT HAPPENED on Tuesday?
The Hawks had one of their more successful days of competition this year with a double-header win for the Boys & Girls Basketball teams and the Hawks Soccer teams split their games.
Josh Sczech making a pass in win over San Antonio Cole as Hawks win their own Tournament.
Canyon Lake (3-0-2) won the CL Hawk Classic in a shoot-out against SA Christian in the championship game, 0-0, Penalty Kicks, 5-4.
Hawks wrap it up after come from behind win over SA Cole, 3-2.
The Boy’s Soccer started their CL Classic Tournament with a WINd over SA Cole, 3-2 with a 3 goals scored in the second half with the wind.
Coach Galloway and the team after a game at the Blanco Tournament last year.
The ReSporter will continue an introduction for a plethora of spring sports that will start when February comes calling in two weeks.
A cold night turned warmer after a Hawk, 2-0 win over Floresville.
Canyon Lake Lady Soccer (6-2) corralled their 6th win of the season after a shut-out victory over 5A Floresville in non-district action at the Hawk Nest, 2-0.
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!!
Canyon Lake Hawk’s Basketball prepares for start of District this week.
THIS WEEK @ CANYON LAKE January 12-16 Tue Jan 12 Boerne JV @ CL Hawks JV 5:00p Girls Basketball CL Hawks Fresh @ Boerne Freshman 5:00p Boys Basketball Floresville @ CL Hawks 5:00p Girls Soccer CL Hawks JV @ Boerne JV 6:15p Boys Basketball Boerne @ CL Hawks 6:15p Girls Basketball CL Hawks @ Boerne 7:30p Boys Basketball Thu Jan 14 SA Cole @ CL Hawks Noon Boys Soccer Canyon Lake Soccer Tournament Bandera Fresh @ CL Hawks Freshman 5:00p Boys Basketball CL Hawks JV @ Bandera JV 5:00p Girls Basketball Bandera JV @ CL Hawks JV 5:00p Boys Basketball CL Hawks @ Bandera 6:15p Girls Basketball Bandera @ CL Hawks 6:30p Boys Basketball CL Hawks @ Katy Tournament TBD Girls Soccer Fri Jan 15 Bandera/Burnet @ CL Hawks Noon or 4pm Soccer Canyon Lake Soccer Tournament CL Hawks @ Katy Tournament TBD Girls Soccer Sat Jan 16 CL Hawks @ CL Lake Soccer Tourney TBD Boys Soccer CL Hawks @ Katy Tournament TBD Girls Soccer +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Way to Go Hawks!!
This is the time of year when several more sports start to take center stage with the final act requiring many actors that will need recognition and reported on.
The ReSporter will have this venue for the Hawk Nation to keep up with who/what/where and then a recap of the previous week.
Both Basketball teams will be in District 28-4A play for the remainder of their schedules while the Girls and Boys Soccer teams gear up with pre-district battles.
Both Soccer teams have started off strong with the Ladies sporting a 4-1 record and CL’s Boys presently having a 2-0-1 record.
The Lady Hawk’s participated in the Pleasanton tournament and will continue this week going to Katy Texas for their tourney.
CL Lady Hawks started this season with a win over Marble Falls last week beating the Mustangs, 5-1.
Go Hawks!!
“This was a big win for the girls as this was a 5A opponent,” Head Coach Kara Stracener said. “This was the first time in three years that we have scored more than 3 goals on an opponent. I hope that this is a sign of us scoring more goals this season than we have in a long time. We lost 5 Seniors last year, so we have many returning players, however many of them are filling in different roles this year.”
Coach Stracener continued by talking bout how tough CL’s district is, “We have a difficult district with TASCO ranking 6 out of the 6 teams in our district in the top ten for our Region. January will be very important for us to continue to stay healthy, put in the work and get better each game as we build towards District play starting in February.”
Maddie Pipkin scored 2 goals in the win over Marble Falls while Gabi Pace, Karleigh Schedlbauer and Claire Schroeder each had one goal against the Mustangs.
CL’s Boys just missed a win over San Antonio Christian who scored a tying goal with nine minutes remaining.
The Lake’s Boys Soccer will Host the Tournament this week in hopes to advance to the Championship game on Saturday at 3:00pm.
Hawk Proud
Basketball has fallen on some trying times as both teams sport a lot of youth while the boys started working on a new offense this season that has had it’s up and downs.
The Lady Hawk’s first week of District play started with two losses and the Boys suffered a loss in Blanco on Friday and will open this week in Boerne and will welcome Bandera on Thursday.
As this month continues look for more Hawk sports on this site open play in hopes of making post-season plans.
Let’s Go Hawks!!
