Westmoreland’s squad peaks at right time
Playoff berth nice, but Magnolia eyes bigger game in postseason
Whatever happens this week, the Magnolia baseball team is back in the playoffs.
The Bulldogs beat Spring Woods last week to clinch their return and stay tied with Tomball atop District 19-5A.
Both teams were 9-3 going into the final two games.
“It’s real good,” coach Dale Westmoreland said. “We clinched a playoff spot last week, and that’s always nice when you get that, and we’ve got a young team. We’ve got a sophomore at third (Preston Hoffart), a sophomore at short ( Jordan Groshans) and a sophomore in center (Cody Wagner), which means we had some growing to do, so it’s been a good year.”
The only senior everyday starter is catcher Jaxx Groshans.
The rest of the team is young, but they’re still part of a program that expects to play in the postseason, so the celebration was kept to a minimum after their playoff-clinching victory over Spring Woods.
“We’ve been there eight or nine years in a row, so we expect to get in, but it’s always nice when you do,” Westmoreland said.
The veteran coach said he won’t ease up this week with the playoffs clinched.
The Bulldogs still have work to do, because they’re young, but he said he may try to get a few more pinch hitters in.
“We’ve got to keep getting better swinging the bat, so we’re going to play our lineup,” he said.
They swung the bat well two weeks ago in a 6-5 win over Tomball, which produced considerably more excitement.
Tomball took their first meeting 10-3 on March 22.
“It was 3-3, and a guy for Tomball hit a home run with a man on, making it 5-3 going into the seventh,” Westmoreland said. “And then we got four hits in a row, and our No. 4 guy (Jaxx Groshans) hit one down the line … for two runs, and the winning run came in.”
The win gave them a boost of confidence just in time for the postseason.
“We were pretty excited about that one, no doubt about it,” Westmoreland said. “There was a lot of jumping around.”
The Groshans brothers, junior first baseman Jordan Monacy and junior outfielder Blake Winebrenner have taken turns shining at the plate, helping fuel Magnolia’s run through district this year.
“They’ve been doing most of the production offensively,” Westmoreland said.
The Bulldogs also receive a lift from the return of sophomore P Adam Kloffenstein, an early TCU pledge who missed most of the season with an injury, forcing junior Kevin Black to step up in his place.
Kloffenstein pitched two innings Friday and was slated to start Tuesday.
“It was a big lift,” Westmoreland said. “He throws well, throws hard, (and) he’s got a good little breaking ball. We’ve missed him. There’s no doubt about it. But our other guys have come through, kept the score down and given us a chance to win.”
They’d like to keep winning this week, and secure the top playoff seed, but Westmoreland said it isn’t a necessity.
“It’d be nice, but if you look at the state tournament, there are two- and three-seeds that go a long way, so you’ve just got to play whoever shows up,” he said. “It’s more about us than it is about them sometimes. It’s how we play. So whether we go one or two, you’ve just got to play well.”
Still, if it comes down to a tie with Tomball, Westmoreland said he will try to play it off.
“I’ve always liked to play because that gives you another ballgame to get another pitcher out there, who might help you in the playoffs, and to have some more at-bats, and make some more adjustments,” he said.
Magnolia fell 10-3, 2-0 to College Station in the area playoffs last season.
Westmoreland said they’ll need more from the bottom half of their lineup if they are to go further this year.
“When you’re in the playoffs, you’ve just got to get hot,” he said. “I know a couple of times when we went to the state tournament when I was at Klein Oak, it was guys coming through who had been struggling during the year. They helped us a lot, got some key hits, and that’s what’s got to happen.”