SMHS BASEBALL
Despite replacing several key starters from last year’s team, the Rattlers continued their winning ways this season to clinch both their fourth straight playoff berth and the team’s third straight consecutive season of winning 20 or more games.
But for sophomore Jack Vasquez and junior Tres Munos, advancing to the playoffs and winning 20 or more games is the standard of the program.
“That’s the expectation here,” Vasquez said. “We preach that all year long, and we practice hard. Going into the season, we are very overlooked by everybody. We’re not the biggest school, but we’re definitely well coached; [We have] very experienced coaches, and everybody who’s on our team in our starting lineup just plays hard. That’s what got us here.” Despite being picked to finish at the bottom of the district in the preseason polls, the Rattlers continued to defy the critics for a second place finish in district and just being one game behind first place.
Senior Zehavi Hernandez delivers the pitch in the Rattlers win over Buda Johnson. Daily Record photo by Gerald Castillo
“At the beginning of the season, they’re definitely doubting us,” Munos said. “Putting us into the playoffs as third seed or fourth seed.
Now coming here at the end of the season, we’re in second. We could have really been in that first spot if we would have critiqued some things but mistakes happen. But we’ve come a long way.”
Head Coach Bryan Webb is not surprised by the results of his team this season despite the turnover, crediting the program’s tradition.
“We like to say we do not rebuild, we reload,” Webb said. “The system stays the same, the program is the same, just the names changed.
You just plug in the next guy and it just continues to roll. So yeah, I’m proud of these guys. We’ve got good leadership by four of our seniors and 21 returners next year, so we’re excited about the program.”
The season was not without its challenges however.
The Rattlers endured many ups and downs, including being swept by district champion Schertz Clemens in a pair of close district games as well as competing in one of the toughest districts in 6A Region IV.
For Webb, the key for the Rattlers was having to learn from their mistakes while also finding new leadership during times of struggle.
“We had to grow up quite a bit,” Webb said. “We had great leadership last year. They were used to having Kutter Gage and Dylan [Nunez] telling them what to do and how to do it. Well they’re gone and you have to do it now.
“Javi Hernandez and Colson [Geesee] stepped up. They’re both fouryear and three-year guys, and they’ve done a good job now. They had to be taught how to do it, but they’ve done a good job. Leading is not easy, and it’s not determined by your stats.
It’s determined by the kind of situation. Everybody leads when you’re up, and that’s kind of what we had to learn. You saw some great players come through here, but you’re going to have to be that great player now.
During the low points of the season, the Rattlers were able to rebound through trusting one another not only with the coaching staff but with their teammates as well.
“For us, we have a lot of respect for each other,” Vasquez said. “We’re a brotherhood here, and we preach that too. We just trust each other. It’s not like we just only trust Coach Webb, we trust each other’s knowledge, and we don’t overlook that at all.
Having that trust is huge when having a team. … We proved that this year, and we still have a lot more to prove.”
Munos also talked about stepping up in leadership to fill the void left by last year’s senior class.
“With the senior leadership we had last year, and now that’s gone, I feel we definitely picked up on what they showed us,” Munos said. “Critique it, make it better and make it our own. When the guy makes a mistake, I know I can trust them to make the next play.”
Having battled through the adversity along with finding new leadership, the Rattlers head into the playoffs with the hopes of adding another playoff trophy to the collection.
“Going into the season, we knew that wasn’t going to be a perfect season,” Vasquez said. “At the beginning of the season, we definitely are not the team we are today. We had to find that and play through adversity. That’s just the big part about becoming a team, and that’s another one of the reasons why we’ve gotten this far into the playoffs.”
In the Bi-District round of the playoffs, the Rattlers will face the Laredo Alexander Bulldogs in a three-game series over the weekend.
Alexander is the champion of District 30, coming into the playoffs with a 20-8 overall record. Notable wins for the Bulldogs came against Clemens, San Antonio Churchill, New Braunfels Canyon and Buda Hays.
Game 1 is set for 6 p.m. Thursday in San Marcos with Game 2 scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at Uni-Trade Stadium in Laredo. Game 3, if necessary, will take place 30 minutes following the completion of Game 2.
cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
Catcher Colson Geesee has emerged as one of the team leaders of the team along with Zehavi Hernandez, Tres Munos and Jack Vasquez. Daily Record photo by Gerald Castillo
