by Robert Halliman
The exciting ride that was the Dragon baseball season unfortunatelybrcame to an end just a week ago. In abryear in which the Dragons rolled to an astonishing 34-6-1 record, they fellbrjust a few innings short of a trip to the UIL 5A state round. Back-to-back latebrinning mishaps left the Dragons falling to Arlington Martin in the first two ofbra best of three games series in the Regional finals. In a baseball version ofbrdéjà vu, the Dragons suffered the same fate at the hands of Martin in the samebrround of last year's playoffs.
After being up 1-0 in Game 1 behind a bloop single by NicbrMotley and a 13 strikeout performance from ace pitcher Tyler Alexander, costlybrerrors in the sixth inning led to a two run sixth inning as Martin came back tobrwin 2-1, handing Alexander his first loss of the season. Game 2 proved to be a heartbreaker as well asbrthe Dragons lost to Martin 4-1 behind a four run sixth inning that saw anotherbrpotential Dragon shutout turn into a Martin victory. A stellar pitchingbrperformance from Martin’s undefeated staff ace Turner Larkins completed the sweepbrfor the Warriors.
The Dragons, led by seniors, Alexander a TCU signee and Texas A&M Football signeebrKenny Hill, have a lot to be proud ofbrincluding at one time being ranked in the top 10 nationally by Max Preps. Third Baseman Kenny Hillbrled the team in both homeruns and batting average, with 6 round trippers and anbrastounding batting average of .446, while only managing 10 strikeouts. He wasn’t the only active bat as up andbrcoming sophomore Nic Motley finished second on the team in homeruns with four,brand a batting average of .333. Nebraska football commit, Drew Brown, also pacedbrthe team with a hit .312 average and plenty of firepower at the plate.
Scoring runs with skill at the plate, the Dragon pitchingbrstaff made sure they held up for wins. brTogether, Alexander along with sophomore Ben Leeper, and seniors SeanbrThompson and Bryce Balkman combined for a season-long display of collectivebrmound dominance resulting in a team ERA well under 1.00 in 14 district games. Alexander guided the Dragon pitching staffbrwith a 12-1 record, while also leading the area in both strikeouts (177) and ERA of (0.35).
Although, Southlake Carroll's season has ended short ofbrtheir goal of another class 5A state championship to add to its resume thebrDragons have no reason to hang their head as they put together another strongbrseason, in which many familiar faces and newcomers made a huge impact on thebrsuccess of this years team. Just likebrany other Dragon team we expect a strong comeback next season will be full ofbrfresh faces next season as they look to return nine players from this years'brroster.