Bay City begins bi-district playoffs tonight against Texas City
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They say there are three seasons in the high school baseball schedule: preseason, district and the playoffs. The Bay City Blackcats, no stranger to the latter, hope the playoff are filled with more breaks than the district schedule.
The Cats sprinted out of the blocks at 7-2, but won only 6 of their last 18 games to finish fourth in District 23-4A, but qualify for playoffs for the fifth straight year, and 15 of the last 16 campaigns. Bay City did not make the playoffs in 2005.
Bay City draws District 24-4A winner Texas City in a best-of-three series beginning tonight at 7 p.m. at Brazosport High School in Freeport. Game 2 is scheduled for Friday night at the same time and Game 3, if necessary, will begin at noon on Saturday. All games are at Brazoport.
“As inconsistent as we have been, we match up pretty good with Texas City,” said Bay City head coach Robert Rayos. “They basically have the same team from last year.”
The Stingarees return eight starters, including their entire pitching staff, from a regional quarterfinals qualifier that went three rounds deep in the UIL playoffs in 2009. Texas City eliminated Bay City in the bi-district round a year ago by winning games two and three after the Cats took the opener.
“We are very familiar with them,” said Rayos. “They have a classy program that has a tradition of winning and are well coached.”
Current Texas City assistant coach Chuck Young, once the skipper of the Stingarees before retiring in 2006, was inducted in the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2008. Bay City has never beaten Texas City in a playoff series, dating back to 1996. The Stingarees beat the Cats in the regional quarterfinals in 2006 as well, despite Bay City representing District 24-4A as the district champion.
Texas City features the one-two punch of Matt Plitt and Josh Harper in the starting rotation. Plitt features a fastball that sometimes touches 90 mph and Harper relies on good offspeed stuff. The Cats knocked Harper from the mound in the first inning last year en route to a 10-8 win.
Bay City will send junior AJ Flores (3-4) to the mound in Game 1. Flores was the losing pitcher in Game 3 a year ago, but recorded the save in Game 1.
Senior reliever Jacob Lara, sporting a brilliant 0.76 ERA with three wins and four saves in 46 innings of work, will be used mostly in relief unless the series goes the distance. Junior Kevin Landgrebe (4-3) is scheduled to start Game 2.
Landgrebe leads the team at the plate with a .385 average, followed by Andrew Pena at .373.