By KERRY BARBOZA
NEW BRAUNFELS – Hays baseball coach Doug Ragsdale was hoping for a deep playoff run in his final year of coaching, but Boerne Champion had other ideas as the Chargers swept the Rebels in first-round action Friday and Saturday at New Braunfels Canyon.
Champion won the first game 3-0 Friday and then closed out the best-of-three series Saturday 12-1 in six innings.
Ragsdale walks away with more than 400 career wins and nine district titles while at Hays. The veteran coach said he’s most proud of how far the Rebels baseball program has come under his tenure.
“When I took over at Hays High School we had been in the playoffs once and I think what stands out is that over the last 18 years we’ve been in 14 or 15 times,” he said. “With several good assistant coaches we’ve built the program to where people respect Hays baseball.”
Ragsdale knew that if his team was going to get past the Chargers, the District 28-4A champions, they were going to have to score in bunches, but the Rebels could only scratch for one run in the series. Their lone run came off the bat of Charlie Johnson who hit a solo homer in the fourth inning of Saturday’s game.
“We didn’t help our pitchers any by only getting one run,” Ragsdale said. “Their kids did a good job of pitching, those kids have a lot of experience and those things play into it.”
Ragsdale used five different pitchers Saturday as he tried to slow down the Champion offense. The one Charger player Hays didn’t slow down all weekend was Nate Guerra, who hit two three-run homers in the series, one in each game.
Guerra’s three-run blast off Alec Swofford Friday proved to be the only offense of the game for either team. Other than the home run, Swofford pitched well and struck out six while giving up four hits.
In Saturday’s game, Guerra sent a pitch over the fence in the fifth to help Champion jump out to an 8-1 lead and put the game away.
Ragsdale said if his team could have scored a run early in either game it might have given them some momentum and confidence, but they left 12 batters on base in the series – six in each game.
In the first inning of both games the Rebels had two runners on but couldn’t score. In the fifth inning of Saturday’s contest they had runners on second and third with one out and loaded the bases with two outs, but were turned away by the Charger defense. Hays also had the bases full in Friday’s contest during the third frame but couldn’t manufacture a run.
“We never got the big hits with two outs,” Ragsdale said. “We never got the one big hit we needed.”
After Saturday’s game, the team presented Ragsdale with a signed baseball. He greeted his players with handshakes and hugs and said he had no regrets about how his coaching career ended.
“Its easier to deal with this 12-1 game than if it would have been 6-5,” he said. “I’m comfortable with my decision, we came a long way, there was a lot of adversity. I’m not necessarily happy right now, but I’m satisfied with the progress we made this season.”
