Early wins not going to Knights’ heads
Youngblood keeping Clear Falls grounded for long district slog ahead
With nearly double the amount of wins it had all of last season before district play begins, Clear Falls’ baseball team might be ready to celebrate.
That would be the worst thing for the Knights to do, coach Eddie Youngblood said. There still are big things to accomplish.
Clear Falls (9-4) began its 24-6A schedule this week. As usual it will be a tough one. Aw inning nondistrict record is nice, but there is plenty of work to do.
“We’ re nowhere near what we think we can be, but we’re comfortable with where we started,” Youngblood said. “We tell them all the time not to get too high or too low. The game of baseball can be humbling in a hurry.”
The Knights hada roster full of inexperienced players last season. The 5-22 record at season’s end looked like many might expect for that situation. With plenty of returning players, there was hope that this season would be better in ahurry.
That’s exactly what has happened. Clear Falls went 3-2 in the opening week and then walloped previously undefeated Fort Bend Travis in the opener of the Clear Creek ISD Tournament. The Knights went on to win four of five games last weekend.
They have scored at least seven runs in six of their last seven games.
“We wanted the kids to get off to a good start and build that confidence,” Youngblood said. “Last year the wheels fell off. We started to question what was going on. We knew if we struggled early (this season) after struggling last year then the same questions would come into play.”
Baseball success begins on the mound, so it’s no surprise that Clear Falls is excelling there, too. Danny Hecker, who this week pledged to play for Wharton County Junior College, and Cooper Markovchik are leading the way there. There is good depth in the staff, too.
A couple of Clear Falls’ losses have been close ones. The Knights lost to always toughPearland, 2-1, on the first day of the season. In a 6-3 loss to Seven Lakes the following week they were tied, 3-3, in the seventh before giving up a big hit.
District play begins this week in earnest. The Knights faced Friendswood on Tuesday. They’ll take on Clear Creek Friday and Dickinson on Saturday.
Clear Falls is a nice turnaround story at this point, but the successful non-district schedule will be nothing but a footnote if the Knights do not keep it going the rest of the way. It is toughtowin in District 24-6A. The good news for Clear Falls is this year it has a team that seems fit to do exactly that.
“It’s good for the school culture and the program and a testament to these kids,” Youngblood said. “Each year we talk about each team having its own legacy. This is Clear Falls’ sixth year. Team five’s legacy wasn’t very good. Every year is a newyear. This is a new challenge. For them to come out and establish the legacy of making the playoffs and hopefully advancing would be really special for them.”