LONGING FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS

State tournament absence unusual for area baseball teams

June 07, 2007 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.

The University Interscholastic League's state baseball tournament opened Wednesday at Dell Diamond in Round Rock and there were no Advocate-area teams participating.

This is the second straight year a team from a county in the Advocate's coverage area failed to qualify for the state tournament, a rare occurrence for an area so rich in baseball tradition.

It was an overstatement, but not by much, to suggest you could throw a baseball in Lavaca, Fayette or Colorado Counties and most likely hit someone from Shiner, Hallettsville, Weimar, La Grange, Schulenburg, Flatonia or Fayetteville who had played in the state tournament. The same was true for a time in Wharton County, where El Campo, Wharton, East Bernard and Boling made state tournament appearances.

To put matters in perspective, the last time a team from an area county failed to qualify for the state tournament in consecutive seasons was 1978 and 1979. This is the first time a two-year drought has taken place since the state tournament expanded beyond the two largest classifications in 1979.

The area's last hope to participate in this year's state tournament disappeared when Shiner lost Game 3 of its Class 1A regional final series against Thorndale.

The lack of an area team at the state tournament the last two seasons is disconcerting, but baseball fans shouldn't start making earlier vacation plans just yet.

"Baseball is just a weird game," Weimar coach Jon Wunderlich said. "It's hard to stay consistent. Even the Yankees don't go to the World Series every year. Sometimes what you do works and sometimes it doesn't."

Wunderlich should know. He led the Wildcats to six Class 2A state tournament appearances between 1996 and 2003 and won five state championships.

"We had some pretty unusual runs there," Wunderlich said. "It was pretty unusual to have them that close. You look at your Fayettevilles and La Granges and your Hallettsvilles and Shiners. We were just fortunate to have a string of success in the area."

Wunderlich realizes a number of factors play a role in a team advancing to the state tournament. But the No. 1 reason for Weimar's success was pitching and Wunderlich knows pitchers like Pat Colon, Don Levinski, Kenn Kasparek and Luke Prihoda don't come around every year.

"We've won before without a dominant pitcher, but it's rare," Wunderlich said. "You need a guy who can get you that strikeout. No matter how good your hitters are, you can't win if you don't have a legitimate pitcher."

The success enjoyed by teams like Weimar, Shiner and Hallettsville has not gone unnoticed by programs around the state.

"Teams around the state are improving every year and they're stealing what we do," Wunderlich said. "They see we have kids playing Babe Ruth and in summer leagues and they've stolen a lot of our ideas."

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but it has come with a price.

"In my opinion, baseball has gotten stronger throughout the state," said Jim Appelt, who led Hallettsville to four state tournament appearances and two state championships before retiring from coaching after last season. "The coaching has gotten better and the representative from each level is pretty good. It's strange not to have one (team) up there. We might have gotten a little spoiled and maybe we were a little ahead of the game."

Realignment has also had an impact on the area, as teams such as Thorndale and Rogers have moved into Region IV. Appelt points out that Blanco advanced to the Class 2A state tournament this season after being shifted from Region IV to Region I.

Luck also plays a role. After defeating Hallettsville in a Class 2A bi-district playoff series, Trinity won three straight coin flips to play one game instead of a series before losing a flip and being swept by Rogers in the regional finals.

"All it takes is a ball to bounce the wrong way," Wunderlich said. "You can have someone get sick or someone break up with his girlfriend. You have to remember they're still high school kids. You never really know with these guys."

Advocate-area teams have enjoyed spending the early part of June at Dell Diamond or Disch-Falk Field in Austin and the last two years have shown absence makes the heart grow fonder.

"We put in a lot of work to get prepared for games like this," said Shiner coach Daniel Boedeker, who has won a state championship as a player, an assistant coach and a head coach, after the Comanches' Game 3 regional final loss to Thorndale. "We have to learn from this. We've got a lot of guys coming back and we want to get to the next step."

CAMP TIME

Wunderlich and his staff will hold the annual Weimar baseball camp Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to noon at Weimar's Veterans Memorial Park Strickland Field. The camp is open those ages 7 to 12. Scheduled instructors include Sam Houston State's Prihoda, who won the Stopper of the Year award on Wednesday, and Columbus graduate and Baylor catcher Matt Sodolak. Prihoda's status will depend on the outcome of today's Major League Baseball amateur draft. For information, call Wunderlich at 979-725-9504 or 979-732-6402.

Mike Forman is a sports writer for the Victoria Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6588 or mforman@vicad.com, or comment on this column at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.