WildTexan

Longview probably has the best offensive 4A team in the state at this point in the season but the Longview defensive side of the ball will need some help to get to the championship game in 4A. If Longview runs their power dives and power slants and mix in the QB options all night against SS they will win the game. Longview didn't look to polished at throwing the ball against T-High. If Longview get into trouble moving the ball they will put the game in the QB's hands and he is very good open field runner. I see the game going down with LV have 7 possessions and scoring on 6 of them. SS will have 5 possessions and score of 2 of the possessions maybe. LV 42 SS 14

I was suprised T-High was close enough in the fourth quarter to win the ball game. Longview probably has the best offensive 4A team in the state at this point in the season but the Longview defensive side of the ball will need some help to get to the championship game in 4A. Maybe Coach King might want to evaluate some of the skill offensive players going both ways down the road to improve the defensive play.

On paper Longview would be the heavily favored team to win this game. T-High team is still learning how to preform as a complete unit. If and it is a big "if" T-High can hang close to Longview into the fourth quarter of the game they might just might have a small chance to win the game. Longview is power run club they bloody your nose right up the middle of the field. This power run sets up everything else they do. Stop the power run up the middle of Longview put the offense team on the bench and T-High might have a chance. Longview -35 T-High-----28

I'm not sure about ESPN poll but Max-Prep has the semi-finalists ranked as follows. T-High 20th-- National 5th -- Texas CC Moody 22th -- National 6th --Texas Brenham 64th --National 12th --Texas F.W. Arlington Height 356th--National 63th --Texas I'm guessing the way the UIL set up semi-final games they seed CC Moody as 1 seed, T-High as 3-seed, Brenham as 2- seed, F. W. Arlington Height as 4 seed. CC Moody has been # 1 in the Texas Baseball Coach Poll most of the year in Texas. Brenham is currently ranked #4 in the same poll. T-High is currently ranked #5 in the same poll. Polls don't mean a whole lot this time of year "that why we play the game".

Heathcott is still having trouble with his right leg. It was evident when he was rounding the bases with his three home runs in the last two McKinney North games. I would not expect Coach Welsh to pitch Slade with the sore right wheel. He can still play in the outfield and hit the ball but I not sure if he could go 7 on the hill throwing the way he does. With the three pitchers T-High has in Turley, Fant and Dudley why risk future injury to Slade. Dance with the ones that brought you to the big dance.

Brenham looks like a solid baseball team all the regular starting line-up is batting at least at a .300 clip or above for the year with 30 HR for the year. It looks like half the club can pitch or listed as pitchers. Thank goodness they can only pitch one of them at a time. When a club get to the final four it is a very good baseball club which will make for a very exciting ballgame Wednesday at 4:00 PM in Round Rock. IMO the T-High Tigers will take the game away for Brenham High School. Best wish to the Pleasant Grove baseball team Go ALL the Way Hawks just wish Maud could have pull it out the other day and it would have been just about a run out from Bowie County.

I also want to offer Congrats to McKinney North and the young man Sharf he pitched an outstanding game. IMO the T-High Tigers will rebound and play lights out baseball the next two games. T-High knew going into game McKinney North had excellent defensive baseball team and they were hitting open spots. Good game worth the money.

Will T-High's left handed batters be able to jump on the submarining right-handed J. Scharf of McKinney North? About half the line-up for T-High bats on the left. T-High will send R. Fant to the hill for T-High and he should be able to handle McKinney North batters. Look for it to be a very tight ballgame maybe being decided by the team defense in the field.

Any baseball team at this stage of the season can get hot and go all the way. The pitching staff can get the right amount of work and start hitting the strike zone consistantly. The bats can come alive on any team as they play more game and get the pitching timing down and the hitter may become a little better at guessing what the next pitch might be. There is always the matter of just plain old lady luck to deal with also such as bad bounce, funny home runs and just plain old errors at the wrong time in the game. It does not matter if you finished 1st or 4th in your district if you get to the Regional Finals you got a better than average baseball team. At this stage there is only eight 4A teams still playing baseball so you could say this is the top eight 4A teams in Texas.

T-High team is getting more confidence with each game played in the playoff.

We knew this Rockwall Heath team carried a good bunch of sticks into the game with T-High. The Tigers matched them and raised the ante with the Tigers power hitters. Sometimes if you score with the home run ball you can get clipped by the home run. The Tigers should not let up tomorrow the Heath team still has a batting lineup that can put the baseball in play. One of the best hitting teams the Tigers have faced all year. Good luck tomorrow to both teams.

T-High baseball field should be in excellent shape for tomorrow game. Approximately 365 ft dead center approximately 305 ft to both left and right field. R. Fant has committed to Univ. of Arkansas as pitcher. J. Turley has committed to Baylor Univ. as a pitcher. S. Heathcott has committed to LSU as pitcher. C. Dudley has committed to La. Tech in baseball. H. Allday has committed to local college in baseball. N. Sorenson has committed to Okla. State in football. IMO Heathcott and Fant stand a good chance of being drafted in the pro-draft. With the number of pro scouts at all of the T-High playoff games this season.

It is R. Fant turn in the rotation for pitching, but we expect J. Turley to go to the bump when T-High and Rockwall Heath get together Thursday. If this arm chair coach were setting the lineup it would be Turley --Thursday and Fant --Friday. If a game three is required we might see Heathcott on the bump. Anyway it will be one of the three.

My research turned up the following facts. Rockwall Heath finished runner up to Rockwall in District 10 -- 4A. Rockwall Heath has one young man (Drew VerHagen #34) who is ranked #23 in Top 100 baseball players in the country. He has commited to Oklahoma. Young man pitches and plays firstbase. Rockwall Heath played in strong district (10--4A) with Highland Park, Rockwall, Carrollton Smith this year all of these team at least 20 wins for the year. The team looks to be stronger offensively than defensively. In 14 of thier games this year Rockwall Heath has scored at least 10 runs or more. In 6 of thier games they have given up at least 9 runs. Play in several high scoring games for both teams. Rockwall Heath vs Frisco Centennial 15-0 , 0-1, 11-1 (Frisco Cent overall record 18-11) Rockwall Heath vs North Dallas 10-0 (N. Dallas overall record 17-9) Rockwall Heath vs Highland Park 17-10, 5-1 (Highland Park overall record 23-12) To get this far in the playoff they are a good baseball team.

3A Texarkana Pleasant Grove

T-High pitching was excellent at keeping Poteet batter off balance all night. T-High defense play a good game just a very few bobble in the infield but still come up with a good performance. T-High time at the plate was lights-out. Don't think T-High has preformed that well at the plate as a group in a while. I would never want to disrespect the effort the Mesquite Poteet team put in last evening but they must come up with a stronger effort on the mound or this series will be over tomorrow after the first game. Good Luck to both Teams.

In Tournament play the players should never look ahead of the next game. But us arm chair folks can look forward at the brackets. I was looking at the bracket and noticed that if Hallsville wins three more games and T-High wins four more games the teams would meet again in the Regional Finals the first week of June. That would be something for 13-4A baseball considering the talented teams each has had to face to get to the finals. Of course this is all what ifs.

We are wondering if the game between T-High and Poteet maybe turning into a one game and out if the rain comes into the area as being predicted? 50% chance of rain in Texarkana by Friday evening and 40% chance of rain in Mesquite by Saturday.

IMO don't think Heathcott will pitch in this series. He has not pitched in game situation in several months due to injuries. He will probable be in the lineup for his bat.

Those of us who follow T-High baseball would assume that R. Fant will probable be on the mound for game 1 and J. Turley on the mound for game 2 in Mesquite Saturday. If relief is required in either game C. Dudley would take the mound. IMO R. Fant is coming into his own as a strong pitcher has harder fastball than J. Turley maybe not the total control that Josh has but can still cover from black strip to back strip being a tall young man can overpower most batter. T-High will need another outstanding defensive effort such as the game Tuesday night. IMO if Mesquite Poteet does not have a strong pitching staff T-High may have a slight advantage in the game. T-High is above average in hitter up and down the lineup ( starting lineup batting average is around .400 and that is against some good to excellent pitchers in the 13 4A district)

4A Baseball Playoff Regional Quarterfinals Friday, May 22, 2009 - 7:30 p.m. THS vs. Mesquite Poteet at THS Saturday, May 23, 2009 - 2:00 p.m. THS vs. Mesquite Poteet at Mesquite Poteet HS Mesquite Poteet is number one ranked team in DFW area and ranked 6th 4A team in the state. Should be a good series between these two teams. We like the three game series.

T-High proved to have the bigger sticks in this game. Waxahachie's C. Cain pitched a good game and T-High's J. Turley pitched lights out. IMO it was in the later inning when T-High was able to pull away for Hachie. Hachie infield errors cost them one score. Man the pro & college and maybe Mesquite Poteet scouts made up a large % of the crowd at this game. The radar gun were working overtime. Good effort by all the young men on both teams. The last home run by T-High (H. Allday) was a monster shot over the right field almost to the water tower.

Both Cain and Turley throw in the 90's with their fast ####. Both have real good control and work the strike zone to the limit. IMO there will not be a lot of base hits unless one of the pitcher is having an off day. It is a shame this is one of the mandated one game playoffs.

According to Sunday edition of Texarkana Gazette the game between T-High and Waxahachie has been moved to Tillery Field at West Mesquite High School. Tillery Field is located south of Memorial Stadium off Military Parkway west of 635 South. Should be a very tight game two of the best high school pitchers in the State of Texas on the mound. Game still scheduled for 7:30 pm Tuesday (5/19/2009).

Is this T-High vs Lindale match a 1 game contest or 2 out of 3 series? If it is a 2 out of 3 series will Lindale be able to send three good pitcher to the mound vs T-High since the series will have to be played over a three day period if we understand the time line deadline imposed by the UIL? Maybe some of the Lindale folks can answer these questions.