Playoffs Bound

The TJ Baseball team took on Mountain View, Prairie View, and Standley Lake this past week.

TJ Pitcher Joe Sedig throws five strong innings against the Hawks. Photo by Mia Nogueira

The Thomas Jefferson Baseball team played the defending 4A Champs, the Mountain View Lions, on Tuesday, May 3rd and lost 2-0, and then took on the Prairie View Thunder Hawks on Saturday, May 7th in another close game with a winning score of 5-4. They also dominated against Stadley Lake on Monday, May 9th with  final score of 10-0.

In contrast wto how they have performed for the entire season, the Spartan Baseball team had a very difficult day at the plate with only a single hit by Senior Kyle Freeland, who threw a no-hitter himself in last week’s game against George Washington. The pitching by defending 4A champs Mountain View was very impressive against the Spartans in this game, but most of the team’s demise was due to self-inflicted wounds of errors and the inability to get a ryhthm going at the plate. “It’s always unfortunate to lose a game like that. We simply had a bad day and need to bounce back before playoffs,” said Freeland.

Next the Spartans went head to head against the Prairie View Thunder Hawks and almost suffered another loss in a close game. Senior Joe Sedig had a noteworthy game, going 2 for 3 at the plate with 2 RBIs and also started off the game on a positive note for the Spartans, pitching five innings and giving up only two runs and striking out five Hawks batters. This one ended in a close, winning score for the Spartans of 5-4.

The Spartans finally got back on track and gained a burst of energy going into the first round of playoffs with an outstanding win in their last regular season game against Standley Lake. The Spartans went back to their basic principles of relying on good pitching and solid play with the bat to win this game. Kyle Freeland took the mound for his final regular season game of the year and showed why he is one of the most impressive pitchers in the state this season. Kyle struck out 11 Gator Batters, ending the game early in only five innings. Evan Walter and Miles Mercer both went three for three at bat and drove in six runs between the pair.

Next up for the Spartans is the 2011 4A State Playoffs. With an impressive regular season record of 15-3-1 and a perfect conference record of 8-0, the team looks to return to their old glory days of State Titles and hope that this year’s team can make as much noise in the playoffs as teams of years past. Their first game is TBA.