The Sachse baseball team poses for pictures with the District 9-6A championship trophy after defeating Rowlett 5-1 Tuesday, April 22. It is the third consecutive district title won by the Mustangs. Photo by David Wolman / C&S Media
By David Wolman
District championships are celebrated by the Sachse baseball team.
Moments after the Mustangs defeated the Rowlett 5-1 Tuesday to win their third consecutive District 9-6A title, senior Aidan Sharp and junior Colt Upchurch hid behind junior Alex Moreno, water cooler in tow, ran around an assistant coach before drenching an unsuspecting head coach Chris Burrow with the contents inside the cooler.
The celebration was only getting started.
Sachse High School Principal Shae Creel pulled the district championship trophy out of his backpack and handed the trophy to the team, who jumped up and down in a celebratory manner.
“It’s awesome,” Burrow said. “These guys put in a lot of work in the offseason. It’s all them. I’m really proud of these guys.”
Sachse had been on a collision course with Rowlett for the district title. The Mustangs came into Tuesday’s contest with an impressive 13-1 mark in district play, but just one game ahead of the 12-2 Eagles.
Rowlett made Sachse earn everything the hard way.
The Eagles nearly came away with an early lead.
Junior Jeffrey Claycomb reached on a dropped third strike with 1 out in the top of the first innings advanced to second base and attempted to score on a Roger Funke single a short time later, but Sachse senior right fielder Sullivan Lajoie threw a strike to home plate and Mustang junior catcher William Martin applied the tag on Claycomb for the third out of the inning.
Sachse didn’t waste a scoring opportunity in the home half of the first.
Senior Jailen Watkins led off the home half of the first with a walk and his speed became a factor. Watkins stole second base and then came around to score on a Zachary Evans RBI single for a 1-0 Mustangs lead.
Watkins was just as big of a factor, if not more, defensively.
Rowlett leveled the score at 1-1 on an RBI single from Roger Funke in the top of the third inning.
On that same play, Watkins noticed there was miscommunication between two Eagle base runners. Sachse initially attempted to catch the trailing runner in a rundown between second and third bases, but Watkins felt that he could throw out the lead runner. The future Miami Hurricane made a snap decision to throw the ball to Sachse’s catcher, Martin, who applied the tag which kept the score tied at 1-1.
One inning later, Sachse nearly gave up the lead. Rowlett senior River Kirkhuff led off the inning with a single, stole second base and then found himself at third base with zero outs after moving up one base on a passed ball. The Mustangs pulled in its infield to try to preserve the tie. The move paid off in a big way. Watkins fielded three consecutive ground balls for outs all while forcing Kirkhuff to remain at third base.
“He’s pretty good,” Burrow said of Watkins. “I’ve had some good ones come through here. With him being with me for four years, it’s awesome. He’s matured, done just a great job this season.”
Watkins’ defensive play helped to flip the momentum in Sachse’s favor.
After struggling on offense during the first three innings, the Mustangs got a breakthrough in the bottom of the fourth. Sharp ran quickly around the base path after he lined a high fly ball into the wall in the outfield for a triple. Sharp proceeded to score on a Moreno sacrifice fly-out that he hit into right field as Sachse took a 2-1 lead.
Sachse’s speed on the base path helped the Mustangs to plate two more runs in the fifth inning and begin to distance themselves from the Eagles.
Watkins reached on a two-base error to begin the fifth inning, advanced to third base on a bunt by Julian Moreno and then slid into home plate to beat the throw after Evans hit the ball to the left side of the infield for a 3-1 Mustangs lead.
“We’ve got several guys that are really fast,” Burrow said. “Jailen, and even Zach and Chase (Thomas) and Sullivan Lajoie. We’ve got a lot of speed. Whenever we hit those dribblers, it forces the defense to have to come up and make great throws. It’s got to be on the money. If not, we can do some good things.”
That advantage grew to 4-1 on a sacrifice fly by Upchurch.
The Mustangs used more small-ball into the sixth inning to increase their lead to 5-1. Sharp led off the inning with a double, advanced to third base on an error and scored on a sacrifice bunt by Lajoie.
Sachse (23-4-1) increased its win streak to 13 consecutive games with Tuesday’s win over their Garland ISD rival.
The Mustangs will begin their quest for a state championship next week. Sachse was an area-round finalist last season.
“Hopefully we’ll keep rolling,” Burrow said. “We treat every game as if we’re playing in the playoffs. Tonight was. We’ll treat Friday the same way. We’re just trying to keep everything the same, keep doing what we’re doing.”
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