STANTON – The best season in the history May High School Tigers baseball reached its conclusion Monday one round short of the UIL Class A State Tournament. On a day when little went in favor of the green and white. the Nazareth Swifts earned a third straight trip to Round Rock with wins of 15-0 and 6-5 in the Region I-A championship series.
Despite struggling throughout most of the day, the Tigers (18-7) refused to give up without a fight, scoring four times in their final at-bat in the top of the seventh inning of Game 2 as they had placed the tying and go-ahead runs on base when the game ended.
“Out of all the days to come out and not play good baseball, today wasn’t one we could afford,” said May baseball head coach Chad Dail. “We struggled at the plate and we played very untypical defense. We had more errors in the first game than we probably did the entire season. We couldn’t catch a break to save our lives, the ball definitely didn’t bounce our way today. We didn’t drive the ball until the seventh inning of Game 2 where we got a little rally going, but it just wasn’t enough at the end.”
Trailing Nazareth (18-4) by a 6-1 count heading to the top of the seventh inning of Game 2, Hagan Hester led off with a single and J.D. White and Bryson Guerrero drew walks off relief pitcher Sterl Welps to load the bases with no outs. Lane Goodson then hit into a double play when Game 1 starter Carson Heiman returned to the mound, but Hester scored to close the gap to 6-2.
Luke McKenzie then came through with an RBI single to right field, which plated White to close the gap to 6-3. A single from Braden Steele, followed by Nazareth’s lone error of the game that allowed Cayson Dail to reach, filled the sacks again with two outs. Kaden Watkins then delivered a two-RBI single into center field that brought home McKenzie and Steele to bring the Tigers within a run at 6-5.
Heiman, however, was able to regroup and retire Ben Harrell on a pop out into foul territory on the third base side, and Nazareth escaped with the win.
The Tigers spotted the Swifts the first six runs of Game 2 before final scratching across a run in the top of the sixth. Goodson led off with a single, was balked to second base, and McKenzie notched an RBI single up the middle drive home Goodson.
May finished with 10 hits in Game 2 compared to Nazareth’s nine, and both teams left eight runners stranded on base. The Tigers, however, committed five errors to one for the Swifts.
The Swifts took a 1-0 lead in the first on a bases-loaded walk by Jack Welps off Goodson. Three May errors in the third inning allowed Nazareth to extend its lead to 3-0. In the fourth, an RBI infield single by Tanner Birkenfeld and an RBI triple by Sterl Welps – both with two outs – stretched the lead to 5-0. The Swifts scored the decisive run in the bottom of the fifth as Brett Heitschmidt tripled with two outs and came home on Tell Bagley’s RBI infield single.
In Game 1 Monday, the Tigers mustered just one hit off Heiman – that by Guerrero with one out in the third inning – and committed six errors, including two in the first inning alone as Nazareth jumped out to a 3-0 lead.
The Swifts added four runs in the third inning, five in the fourth, and three more in the top of fifth inning off May’s pitching duo of McKenzie and Hester, which yielded 11 hits and issued five walks.
“From the first inning on of Game 1 we came out not playing good baseball,” Dail said.
Monday’s games marked the end of the high school athletic careers for McKenzie, Guerrero and Damian Salinas – the Tigers’ three seniors.
“We’re graduating three kids and they’re pivotal to our team,” Dail said. “Luke is a great pitcher and a phenomenal shortstop, Bryson was our right fielder and lead-off and Damian Salinas was a courtesy runner. Those guys are irreplaceable, but we hope some of the younger guys step up next year and take up some of the slack.”
Despite the losses Monday, the Tigers still claimed the initial district championship in program history, advanced past the opening round of the playoffs for the first time, and were on the brink of a state championship tournament appearance – and the bulk of the roster returns next spring.
“It’s a big season for us, a program-changing season,” Dail said. “When I talked to the boys after the game I asked them who all thought at the first of the season we’d be where we are right now. Nobody raised their hand. Then I asked who thinks we’ll be back here next year, and they all raised their hands. It’s a mentality switch that was needed and now they know they’re capable of making deep runs. We know what it takes to get here now, and if we don’t make it back here next year it will be a disappointing season to be honest.”
