Joe Diehl/The Sachse News
Jordan Brown (18) and Donovan Duvernay each race toward the ball during last Saturday’s 5-1 loss to Rowlett in the 2016 regular-season finale. The defeat ended the Mustangs’ season, which is the first time they have not qualified for the playoffs since 2008.

By Greg Ford
Sports Editor
[email protected]

SACHSE — After seven consecutive seasons, perhaps it was time for Sachse baseball to take a break from the postseason; then again, maybe not.
Either way, the Mustangs will be absent from the postseason for the first time since 2008 after losing a pair of 5-1 games last week to Lakeview Centennial and Rowlett. Those defeats left Sachse at 6-8 within 11-6A and 18-13 overall.
“This team worked hard, but sometimes you get the breaks, and sometimes you don’t get the breaks,” head coach Chris Burrow said. “We lost some close games, and when you lose one-run games, it can go either way. We lost two or three of those, and if (you change) that, it’s a different game.”
The regular-season finale versus Rowlett, which took place at home last Saturday, was anything but that, as the Eagles flew out to a 3-0 lead and then added two more runs in the top of the seventh. Sachse got one run across in the bottom of the inning to avoid the shut out.
Burrow acknowledges there will be a lot of new faces on varsity in 2017, but the good news is many of them are coming up from successful freshman and junior teams.
The former went 9-1 and the latter 10-3 this past season, the coach noted.
“We just need to get them groomed up and ready to go,” Burrow said.

Softball falls at Midway
The middle innings doomed the Lady Mustangs in a 12-3 bi-district loss on April 29 at Waco Midway.
Sachse trailed just 4-3 after two innings, but Midway then scored four runs in the fourth and four in the fifth to end the blue and whites’ playoff hopes. They finished the 2016 10-17 overall and 9-5 in District 11-06A.
Emilee McDonald had three hits and three RBIs for the Lady Mustangs in last week’s defeat.