HARLETON, Texas — When a team suffers their first loss of the year in a critical moment, it's easy to shut down. In this case, Harleton baseball team's senior leader stepped up when his team needed him the most.
Going into the regional semifinals against the Garrison baseball team, the Harleton baseball team still sported an undefeated record.
"We blew district out of the water. But now in the playoffs, the competition is getting a little bit tougher," said senior pitcher Braden Hopkins. "But we're still achieving our goals and we're still winning."
When Hopkins comes into the game to close it out, you can almost consider it a guarantee. He closed out game one successfully. But in game two, the unbelievable happened. In extra innings, the Garrison team threw down a squeeze bunt to bring in the winning run and hand the Wildcats their first loss of the year.
Now, came the real test. After suffering that first loss of the year, they immediately had a do-or-die game three on the horizon with a trip to the regional finals on the line. Head coach DJ Beck wondered how his team would respond to such adversity.
"We had talked about it as a coaching staff, when we thought we would get our first loss and how the kids would respond," Beck said. "It was just unfortunate that it happened on Saturday in that game and how it happened."
Only 30 minutes after blowing the save in game two, Hopkins took the mound and started game 3 on a quick turnaround. He delivered big time, going five shutout innings to propel the Wildcats into the regional finals.
"We just had to bounce back and stay focused because the job isn't finished," Hopkins said. "We had to put that loss behind us, because that's not going to decide if we win or go home. The next one is."
They'll take on another hungry East Texas squad in Douglass. But as long as they keep playing the same style of baseball that has them sitting at 33-1 going into the regional final, they'll be in great shape.
For Hopkins, it's been four years of hard work with this program. He said that nothing would be sweeter than to cap off his high school career with a trip to state.
"It would mean the world. I've been waiting in Harleton for something deep to happen because Harleton is full of athletes," Hopkins said. "So, just to be able to finally execute in my last year would be something special."