Although the Tiger baseball team went without a win at their own tournament, they put up a fight.
They started off on Thursday morning with a 6-2 loss to Holland, a Class 2A school that has runruled their opponents in a third of their games this season.
The Hornets built an early 5-0 lead with hits from Colten Cargill and Ayden Tomasek. Rockdale put up a fight late in the game with Jesus Bocanegra scoring on a Tra’on Crawford hit in the fifth and a sacrifice fly by Bocanegra that brought in Drayton Castaneda in the sixth, but couldn’t overcome HHS.
Mason Willard and Mario Casarez both saw the mound with Willard pitching five innings and striking out three and allowing five hits. Casarez threw for two innings and allowed one hit with two strikeouts.
RHS had a rough Friday falling to state-ranked Troy 14-0 and Bryan’s Brazos Christian School 10-1.
The Tigers ended the tourney Saturday with a 9-4 loss to Class 5A Manor.
Head coach John Hooser saw the tourney as an opportunity for his team, with five freshman starting, to grow.
“We have a group of guys that have played a lot of innings, they’ve grown up in the batting cage but they’re still getting used to high school baseball,” Hooser said following the tournament. “They’re going to take their lumps, but they’ll be okay.”
RHS also has veteran leadership from Crawford, Castaneda and Bruce Mayfield, who have started for the Tigers since Hooser arrived in Rockdale in 2019.
Senior Chase Mayfield has also seen significant playing time despite not playing since his middle school years. Junior Zakori Yanes has also seen playing time this season.
THIS WEEK—Rockdale opened district with a 4-2 win over Florence on Tuesday afternoon.
The Buffaloes led early after capitalizing on an error in the third inning but Rockdale took over with four runs in the bottom of the sixth fueled by hits from Castaneda, Willard and Bocanegra.
Casarez led the way at the mound with 10 strikeouts in five innings with two hits allowed. Willard also threw for two innings with one strikeout and two hits allowed.
The 1-0 Tigers also played Groesbeck on Wednesday after press time and travel to Academy Friday for their second district contest.
With a 4-12 record this season, the Bumblebees have struggled but have been a playoff favorite in the past.
“Academy’s always good,” Hooser said. “But our guys just need to know it’s not about having nine good at-bats.”
“It’s more about having three or four good at-bats, that’s all we need,” he said.
Game time at AHS is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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