Standing on the turf at Don Sanders Stadium about 90 minutes before the first pitch of Game 2 of the Region III championship series between his Magnolia West Mustangs and the Lake Creek Lions on Friday, coach Travis Earles reflected on how the defending state champions got to this point.
In simplest terms: It wasn’t easy.
Repeating a state championship at the high school level is challenging. Players graduate and the roster changes yearly. Talent level is never stable. You have studs one year and the next, the barrel might be a little empty.
But as his Mustangs loosened up with batting practice during a sun-drenched dinner-hour in Huntsville, Earles wasn’t surprised this group was a win away from returning to Round Rock with a chance to defend their crown.
After a 10-3 win over Lake Creek for the regional championship, Magnolia West (26-14-1) is hoping to bring home another state title next weekend.
Repeat state championships in UIL baseball are fairly rare, but they came in bunches a few years back. In 2018 and 2019, Big Sandy (Class 2A), Argyle (4A) and Southlake Carroll (6A) all repeated. Flatonia (1A) and West (2A) did the same in 2015 and 2016. Before that was a large gap as Weimar (2A) won back-to-back state titles in 2000 and 2001.
Klein was the last large Houston-area team to even go to state in back-to-back years (2010 and 2011). Sweeny (4A) went consecutively in 2018 and 2019. Tomball went twice in three years a decade ago. The Cougars won the 4A title in 2013 and returned as a 5A team in 2015.
Heading into this season, Magnolia West was without its top two pitchers who were both D1 recruits in Caylon Dygert (UT-Arlington) and James Ellwanger (Dallas Baptist University).
Five out the nine batters in the state championship lineup — a 3-2 win over Argyle — graduated. Key returners were Dawson Park (Texas State), Caldwell McFaddin (Baylor), Trenton Buckley (Louisiana-Monroe) and Cody Palacios.
Earles admits the schedule was very heavy at the start of the year. It was packed with several 6A programs (ironically Magnolia West will compete in 6A starting in 2025) and District 21-5A is always a gauntlet with teams like Lake Creek, Magnolia, A&M Consolidated, College Station, Montgomery and Brenham all contending.
Last year’s Mustangs were 36-5. This year’s team lost four games in the first seven days.
“They’re two different teams,” Earles said Friday night. “Two different rides and two different experiences. For this group, it was hard for us early and for them to battle back through and have success late, I can’t say enough about every guy on our team.”
Magnolia West started the year with an 8-6 win over Cypress Ranch. It then dropped four out of the next five, with that fifth game a tie in a tournament game.
Things trended in a positive direction some when the calendar flipped to March. Magnolia West beat four 6A teams in-a-row, but then dropped three of four before district play began.
The Mustangs ran out to a 5-0 start in district play with sweeps of Magnolia, which finished tied for second with Lake Creek, Bryan Rudder and a split with College Station, which became an important result a month later.
The back-end loss to College Station snowballed into getting swept by Lake Creek and then a loss to Brenham to open a series. After bouncing back to split with the Cubs, eventual district champion A&M Consolidated then swept the Mustangs heading into the final series of the regular season with Montgomery.
Scratching to remain in the playoff hunt, Magnolia West experienced a massive setback in Game 1 against Montgomery — a 9-0 loss against a team also in the mix for the final playoff spot.
Heading into the final game of the regular season, Magnolia West needed to bounce back at home against the Bears, and also needed College Station to lose to A&M Consolidated for any hope of the postseason.
Both happened.
Park tossed six innings with eight strikeouts and three hits allowed against Montgomery while also going 3-for-3 with an RBI and a triple in a 6-0 win. College Station lost to A&M Consolidated that night, setting up a Saturday afternoon one-game playoff in Navasota for the fourth and final playoff spot.
It was a massively successful day as the Mustangs won 8-3 with the Cougars scoring all their runs in the top of the seventh.
Since then, Magnolia West has only added to the winning streak, which has now reached 12 games after going a perfect 10-0 so far in the playoffs. The Mustangs have swept Lake Belton, Elgin, A&M Consolidated (who beat Magnolia West by a combined score of 16-10 in the regular season), Sante Fe and then Lake Creek (who beat Magnolia West by a run twice in district play).
“It took every single one of us not to give in to some of that failure earlier in the year,” Earles said. “I couldn’t be more proud of this group. I’m very, very blessed to be around such high quality young men, the community and the whole deal. It’s a blessing.”
Magnolia West will find out late Saturday or early Sunday who its state semifinal opponent will be. The semifinals are 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday at Dell Diamond.
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