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Tag: Lake Travis Baseball

Lake Travis to Replace Two Draft Picks Look to Make Another Round Rock Run

Written by Greg Sherman on . Posted in High School Baseball.

AUSTIN – In the 2019 6A semifinals against Southlake Carroll, Lake Travis was able to do what few teams did in the knockout rounds: force Southlake Carroll to work hard to win.  Future MLB draft pick Brett Baty kept the Cavaliers in the match until the 6th inning when his pitch count went over.  Once that happened and he had to leave, the Dragons scored 4 runs late to beat the Cavs and went on to win their 2nd straight 6A title.  With Baty (New York Mets), and Jimmy Lewis (Dodgers) now in the minors, the Cavs will look to their pitching depth to make another run to Round Rock.

Mike Rogers begins his 7th year as manager at Lake Travis and his 39th season overall with a good chance to hit 750 wins in his career and will have 7 starters returning from that 2019 squad.

“You cant replace a Brett Baty or a Jimmy Lewis but the kids are accustomed to pressure,” said Lewis.  Their returnees include shortstop Parker Guerin, and pitchers Storm Hierholzer, Kal Edmunson and Alec Grossman.  Those 3 along with 4 others are already committed to play college ball with many at the D1 level.  The first order of business will be to defend their 25-6A title against tough competition headed up by friendly rival Austin Westlake who almost upset 2-time defending finalist San Antonio Reagan in round 3.

“J.T. (Blair) is an outstanding coach and has done a good job building the program,” said Rogers.  “They made a big jump last year and with J.T. at the helm, it will be a dog fight for the district championship this year.”

Region 4 is filled with top teams such as LT, Reagan, San Antonio Johnson, and Laredo Alexander.  They combined for 4 finals appearances and 7 semifinals.  Though none won the golden trapezoid.

“Region 4 has lots of top teams and are as good as anyone with outstanding pitching staffs,” said Lewis who has 722 career wins.

But all roads go through Southlake Carroll.  The Dragons have won the last 2 titles and if not for a balk call in the 2017 semifinal loss against Deer Park, they might be going for a 4-peat.

“Southlake Carroll is very talented.  Winning it back to back is super impressive and I think they are the favorites.  When you face that situation you have to rely on pitching.  It is unusual at the high school level to have 9 batters you have to game plan for.  They have power and they have pitching and they stress your pitching.”

While the season wont start until late February, Lake Travis and Reagan will scrimmage February 15th at Wolff Stadium in San Antonio.  The UIL baseball semis and finals are scheduled for June 10-13 in Round Rock and Austin.

Greg Sherman is a freelance writer for Texas Sports Monthly.  Check out his Youtube channel youtube.com/user/buckeyesooner82

Brett Baty Field of Dreams

Written by Russell Dowden on . Posted in High School Baseball.

When your a young kid you Dream of playing for the Majors and envision
yourself hitting that Grand Slammer to win the game in front of the home crowd. It’s often a tall order for many players as few get to really live their dreams out and play professionally. But for one Lake Travis student, hard work, lots of practice, great parenting and coaching has landed Lake Travis senior Brett Baty just such an opportunity.

Brett Baty, a third baseman from Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas, talks on the phone with New York Mets personnel after being selected No. 12 by the Mets in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft, Monday, June 3, 2019, in Secaucus, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)


This past week Baty was one of 4 High School kids to be drafted in the 1st round of the MLB Draft in June 3, 2019, in Secaucus, N.J. Baty who has been hitting a staggering .624 this season just graduated from High School last week and is also playing for the 6A State Championship game in Austin for a chance at a Title.

The Texas Longhorn commit may skip his collegiate career altogether as the temptation to the simply play in the major leagues professionally is every college athletes dream anyway.

The 6’3 19 year old 3B/1B/P has a well balanced game and should do well to acclimate to the pros. We wish him the best in search for his own Field of Dreams.

Lake Travis baseball beats Westlake, ranks 1st in the state’s 6A

Written by Daniel Jones on . Posted in High School Baseball.

The cross-town district match-up has postseason indications

BY DANIEL JONES

On a chilly night in mid-March, a large crowd witnessed some of the country’s best high school baseball when the visiting Lake Travis Cavaliers beat the Westlake Chaparrals 7-3 in seven innings. Lake Travis moved to 16-0 (5-0 in District 25-6A), and the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association now ranks the team at first in the state in 6A. (The same association ranked the team second in the state in preseason polls.) With the loss, Westlake fell to 15-3-1 (3-1 in District 25-6A).

“It’s always exciting [playing your cross-town rival]. You can go throw everything out the window,” Lake Travis head coach Michael Rogers said. “Great energy tonight, great crowd. Both teams needed to play in that environment to get ready down the road, so fortunately we came out on top. Our district is much better than it was in the past. Both teams needed this kind of game to get ready for the playoffs, which is still a long way away, but that kind of stuff pays dividends down the road.”

Lake Travis six-foot-six-inch starting pitcher Jimmy Lewis, who has committed to play next year at Louisiana State University, was absolutely dominating with his 93-MPH fastball. He got the win pitching 5 and ⅔ innings, giving up just two runs and five hits while earning 12 strikeouts. In four innings, Westlake’s starting pitcher, senior Dylan Savino, allowed three runs and four hits, accumulating six strikeouts. He got the loss on the night.

The game was relatively quiet going into the third inning: Westlake had a 1-0 lead, which resulted from a solo home run from senior Bobby Serfass. And then when Lake Travis had two runners on in the third, junior shortstop Parker Guerin smacked a three-run home run to take the 3-1 lead. Westlake pitcher Savino then threw a scoreless fourth inning before Westlake relievers would finish the last three innings and give up another four runs; and three more Lake Travis relief pitchers would come in and keep the Chaparrals offense from scoring for the rest of the game, finishing what Lewis started.

“I was just trying to get ahead in the count,” Lewis said, “and use my curve ball to my advantage ‒ because they were sitting fastball ‒ and just keep them off-balanced.” On the team being ranked highly in the state and possibly having what it takes to go far in competition this season, he said, “We don’t want to listen to outside noise, and we have to just play as a team, keep up the camaraderie and keep going.”

Offensively, Lake Travis dominated as well. After Guerin’s three-run bomb in the third, the Cavaliers pounded out several more hits in the games, including doubles from seniors Austin Plante and Bretty Baty in the fourth inning, and then a bases-loaded, two-RBI double from Lewis in the top of the sixth.

Westlake hitters put up a fight, though: Aside from Serfass’s solo bomb in the second inning, senior shortstop Peyton Sanderson doubled and junior second baseman Ford Elliot singled in the first; senior outfielder Denton Apple had two doubles, one in the second, then another that drove in two runs in the fourth.

“I was proud of our kids,” Westlake head coach JT Blair said. “We were ready to play. It was a great performance by a great high school pitcher. It’s just one game. We’ll put that one behind us and get ready for next week. Our district is tough from top to bottom. Our guys are up to the challenge.” The two teams play each other again Friday, April 12, 7 p.m., at Lake Travis.