Travis, Kempner players atop honor roll
Players from Fort Bend Travis and Kempner highlighted the 23-6A all-district baseball teams.
The MVP award was shared by Travis outfielder Cole Turney and Kempner pitcher Simeon Woods-Richardson.
Turney led the Tigers to an undefeated district season with the help of his six home runs. Only two players in the Houston area hit more this season. Those roundtrippers came at big times, too. Three of them were grand slams.
Woods-Richardson came out of nowhere this season, showing major improvement from his freshman season on the junior varsity. Also the district’s Newcomer of the Year, he won all seven of his decisions and struck out 98 batters in 56 innings. He finished with an ERA of 0.38 in leading Kempner to the third round of the playoffs - the deepest run of any Fort Bend ISD team.
Four other players were unanimous selections to the first team. They were Travis first baseman Wesley Faison, Austin pitcher Connor Lapore, Kempner outfielder Jeremiah McCollum and Clements designated hitter Jacob Stoltenberg.
Travis and Kempner each had five first-team picks. The others for Travis were pitcher Cole Montgomery, third baseman Michael Munoz and outfielder Dominic Cox. The others for Kempner were catcher Jorge Gutierrez, shortstop Alec Carr and utility player Jacob Weber.
Clements outfielder Rafe Chaumette and second baseman Bryce Blaum were first-team picks. Dulles had one first-team honoree in pitcher Jake Holland.
Travis’ Rodney Hernandez was named Coach of the Year. District 24-5A
Lamar Consolidated athletes were well represented on the 24-5A baseball all-district picks. Terry pitcher Jaxon Williams led the way by being named district MVP. George Ranch’s Dylan Rock was named the Offensive MVP. The Newcomer of the Year award was shared by Foster’s Zach Limas and George Ranch’s Joseph Menefee.
Other unanimous first-team selections were George Ranch pitcher Ryan Harris, Foster pitcher Cole Sitka, Terry catcher Aaron Garcia, Foster outfielder Ryan Bagley, George Ranch outfielder Josh Lapierre, George Ranch utility player Jake Zatopek and Lamar Consolidated outfielder Matthew Lerma. Triathlon success
Athletes from Clements earned medals at the 2016 Texas High School Triathlon Championships in May. The team of Christy Lee, Brian Yuen and Yaobin Chen won the title in the mixed relay.
The team of Thomas Madden, Nathan Zheng and Aaron Pan placed third in the boys relay event. The annual event is held in Cypress. Basso tops in 22-6A
Most of the time a district’s MVP is given to the best player on the championship winning team. In 22-6A this season there was a major road block for that.
Pearland senior pitcher Brady Basso was as dominant as it gets.
Though the Oilers placed second - one game behind Alvin - Basso was the easy choice for district MVP because of how major an impact he had on the game’s he pitched.
The southpaw went 7-1 with 101 strikeouts and an ERA of 0.48 in 57 innings pitched. Basso possesses a fastball in the range of 8791 miles per hour.
“At this level that’s hard to hit especially when you have pretty good run on the ball,” coach Anthony Scalise said. “Nothing he throws is straight. It’s difficult to pick up. His curve ball is really good, too.”
Basso has signed with Oklahoma State. Scalise said there were a bunch of scouts at all of his game and that he has a chance to be drafted in this summer.
Basso had several big performances this season, including in both games against Alvin. Ironically, his best game against Alvin came in a 1-0 loss. Basso threw a one-hitter. In a district game against Pasadena, he threw a fiveinning no hitter with 11 strikeouts.
In the playoffs he dominated Fort Bend Travis with 10 strikeouts as the Oilers swept the series against the undefeated 236A champions.
Pearland’s playoff run ultimately ended with a three-game series loss in the regional semifinals against regional champ Langham Creek.
It is the Oilers’ second trip at least to the regional semifinals in the last three seasons. Scalise said the coaching staff could not have asked for much more.
“We 100 percent went above and beyond the expectation,” he said. “We got everything out of our kids. We could have easily played to the regional final if we wouldn’t have made some mistakes, but overall we’re happy with what we accomplished.”
Pearland senior outfielder Caleb Maly also was named to the 22-6A first team. He was joined by Dawson players Walker Clayton (pitcher), Tristan Perez (first base) and Drake Ranier (outfield).
Manvel had two firstteam selections in pitcher Joey Pate and outfielder Warren Laster. Oiler signee
Lady Oilers senior Kylie Napoleon recently signed a national letter of intent to play volleyball at the University of Houston.
Part of the most successful senior class in school history, Napoleon amassed 661 digs in her career as a defensive specialist. She received alldistrict honors as a junior and senior. Lions add Neff
St. John XXIII College Preparatory recently hired Calum Neff to coach cross country.
Neff began running at 4 years old and continues to race competitively at an international level in many aspects of the sport, from track and cross country to marathons and mountain ultra-marathons.
He set a world record while winning the Katy Half Marathon earlier this year, completing the race in 1 hour, 11 minutes and 27 seconds while pushing 1-year-old daughter Holland in a stroller.
Neff was a studentathlete at the University of Houston and during that time also was the head cross country and track coach at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School. He also was an assistant coach for the University of Nevada at Reno Altitude XC Summer Camp for middle and high school athletes for the past 10 years.
Neff and his family moved to Katy from Canada three years ago.
— Jason McDaniel