Super Fan Mr. Bill Phillips can be seen at almost all of Canyon Lake’s venues

cheering on young athletes in many fields.

You have seen him, he has that special place in the Hawk Gymnasium, up behind the student section, or walking up to a press box during a football game, or how about seeing Phillips hanging out at countless Baseball and Little League games.

“I played Junior High Softball because there was no baseball at my school,” Mr. Bill started. “With both of my brothers, we played every sport.”

So going back to Junior High days the seed had been planted and now you have ‘Super Fan’ still showing his support for athletes in the Canyon Lake community.

Just sitting by Bill and watching a game will give you wisdom as you listen to all of his recollections of games from the past.

Not to mention his countless one liners that are lined up inside his mind like every Baseball Coach would be preparing a line-up card.

Coaches know him as ‘Bill’ and seeing him at all of their games does not go unnoticed.

“My Dad played semi-pro baseball back in 1938 when we moved down to Houston,” Mr. Bill continued. “I have been around the kids watching them play and grow with all of their skills and attitudes.”
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Canyon Lake JV dominates Llano in their last scrimmage before the season starts next week.

Llano only had three pitchers for this scrimmage and that left Canyon Lake taking the field for an extra two frames just so Coach Brian Owens could get enough work from his six pitchers.

What Coach Owens saw was another dominating performance from several of his players on the mound as strikes and defense kept Llano without a run until their last at bat.

Look at these numbers from four Hawk pitchers:

 name       ip  r  er h  bb so balls/strikes
 Headrick    2  0  0  0  0  3      9/18
 McCleary    2  0  0  3  1  3     11/23
 Volz        1  0  0  0  1  1      5/11
 Kissell     2  0  0  0  3  3     21/16

As the night progressed so did the wind and temperature as the last inning was a numbing affair.

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The Hawk Varsity Baseball team had a satisfactory scrimmage at Burnet last Tuesday night.

Yes, this was a scrimmage meaning that you don’t have a winner or losing team, but after having two years where everything that could go wrong going wrong, then The ReSporter will give your Hawks the win last evening.

“The game went good last night,” Head Coach Trent Dunavant said. “We would’ve won if this would not had been a scrimmage.”

Canyon Lake had two glaring problems in the past two campaigns: Pitching and fielding would be those nagging weights that bogged down this team in the past.
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Hawk JV Baseball team won their scrimmage game against Burnet Tuesday at the Hawk Diamond.

This game started during the daylight which was the phrase used by Coach Brian Owens when comparing their game with Seguin last week.

“Night and day from last week,” Coach Owens commented when asked the difference in their last two contests. “We have been working on focusing in the game and talked about the mental side of the game.”

The Hawks won this 11 inning affair 10-8 as CL held Burnet to only one run in their last eight innings.

A slow start as the Hawks found themselves down 7-4 after three innings and then 8-4 after the sixth.

That would be the Bulldogs last run of this game as Headrick, Kissell, Volz, and McCleary closed the door on Burnet for the rest of this outing.

Ten strikeouts and four walks was a winning formula along with a much sharper defensive game as this contest matured.

“We had a good game but we started slow,” Jordan Weber started. “We made our way to the top and were more consistent and we had our plays down. We also communicated more as a team.”

Yes, this was just a scrimmage, but Canyon Lake’s JV team had a lot of good pitchers take the mound and sound defense and timely hitting.

Wait, that is what suppose to happen in baseball when you want to be successful.

Just two errors and cutting down on walks was a whole different team playing from last week’s game.

This team will be fun to watch this year, in fact, you will have another chance this Friday, when Canyon Lake plays Llano in a makeup game cancelled last week.

Come on out for the Day game and hopefully the Night game will have bright lights on for another win.

             1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11   R  H E
Burnet       2  1  4  0  1  0  0  0  0  0  0   8 11 4
Hawks JV     3  1  0  0  0  0  3  3  0  0  X  10 10 2

Canyon Lake Baseball is rounding third as this season gets closer and closer to home base.

The Hawks had a forgettable season in 2012, but forgetting last year could be a mistake for this CL team that finally has more than one senior playing.

Those hard knocks put on Canyon Lake are learning tools that might give this year’s team the drive needed to compete and win.

Starting with that 3-22 record, most of that roster was from a Freshman and Sophomore laden class that was playing district foes that were way out of their league.

Bandera was starting all Seniors but one player last season and that is just a sampling of what other teams had on their roster.

There is a band of Seniors that want nothing more than to end this season with some proverbial skins on the wall. That goal can be reached much like three years ago when Canyon Lake’s baseball team not only made the playoffs, but was the first team for Canyon Lake to win in their first round in postseason play.

There has been a report that Head Coach Trent Dunavant might have been smiling while prepping this team for the start of this season.

Get ready, because these next numbers will wipe that smile off your face and replace it with a frown.

Numbers
   3    Wins last season
.227    Team batting average
  90    Runs scored
 198    Runs given up on defense
  28    Extra base hits
6.54    Compiled Earn Run Average
 1.3    Runs allowed per inning

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The ReSporter: Coach Dunavant, tell us what your

thoughts on that new district schedule where you played each team three times last season.

Coach Dunavant: “The teams that deserved to play in the playoffs got into the playoffs which many times might not be the case when you play twice with several games between contests. You have a chance of getting your opponents ace pitcher in both of those contests where other teams could have a pitcher that would be not as good.
This system gives you a chance to play a team and face more pitchers that can translate into a better chance of winning if you are better. All those better teams got in.”

The ReSporter: Tell us what your thoughts on how this group of players are doing in preparation for the upcoming season.

Coach Dunavant: “Yesterday I went down to the field and saw players knocking the ball around and playing the infield. We might have more infield depth than we have had in several seasons, which might help us in the outfield.”

“I feel pretty good with that depth and maturity, everyone out there has been on the varsity and all those lumps they have endured the past two years will payoff this year.”

“Now it is time to reap the reward and put into motion their game on the field. This is not a rebuilding year, this is a producing year.”

The ReSporter: When does improvement increase the most for players, Freshman to Sophomores, Sophomores to Juniors, etc…?

Coach Dunavant: “I don’t think their improvement happens based on what grade they might be in, they improve because they are guys that want to compete and be out there for something more. Many of our Seniors are wanting to play in college, so they’re going to be more intense their senior year than another player that might be wanting to play out that last game of the season.”
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Canyon Lake had several sports banquets last week and The ReSporter would like to give you the scoop on who did what.

Last Thursday night CL had golf, baseball, and track teams in attendance at the Hawk gym, where the coaches and parents had the opportunity to hear about their sons and daughters and give them the accolades that were well deserved.

BASEBALL:

“Future looks bright,” Head Coach Trent Dunavant started as he rallied the team for their awards. “This was the hardest working group and it looks very promising for next year. Senior night went very fast with only one player. We are very young and I’m excited for next year.”
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The Hawks finished up they’re 2012 Baseball Season last Saturday in Boerne as the

team will work on one sure thing to get better…get older!!

This team played with a majority of players that have yet to get their driver’s license this year and many times the result was painful for the team as Canyon Lake took a lot of bumps and bruises throughout the campaign.

Finishing with Boerne did not do any favors for the Hawks as the two game final series was seeing where this team hopes to be in the future…but that will only come with time, practice, work outs, etc…
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Navarro beat the Hawks last Friday night at the Hawks diamond, 9-7, completing

the series winning two of the three games.

The Hawks found themselves ahead of the Panthers again in this game as Canyon Lake started with five runs in the first two innings.

Canyon Lake lost the lead in the top of the six inning when Navarro scored two runs giving them the difference for the final score.

Kyler Huff continued his strong at bats with two hits and three hits in the last two games. Huff’s hits were highlighted with a triple in  this game.

Conner Drum also had a break out game with a triple and driving in two runs for the game.
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Canyon Lake’s little mistakes become Big mistakes in the loss to Navarro, 10-7 last

Tuesday night on the road.

There were several positive aspects from the plate as Senior Dylan Adams and Junior Kyler Huff each registered three hits a piece.

Also, all the players but one had a hit in the game which can be a confidence builder.

Did we say that there was only one error?

The Hawks are still young and the on the job training can be painful many times…but in this game the pitching just could not finish the job and that one error was a big error allowing two runners to score.
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