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The Kennedale Wildcats are having the kind of season that doesn’t come along too often.
All it takes is a quick look at the Kennedale baseball record book to confirm it.Heading into Friday’s Class 3A Region I semifinal matchup with Pleasant Grove, the Wildcats (24-3) are hitting a blistering .395 as a team and are on pace to shatter the school record for batting average (.376).“To have a team batting average of almost .400 is amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it in my 27 years of coaching,” Kennedale coach Jet Teague said. “And our defense has been right up there too. We’ve made very few errors this season.”Senior pitcher/second baseman Benny Woodard has been a big key to the Wildcats’ success, going 7-0 on the mound and setting another Kennedale record with eight triples. Junior pitcher/first baseman Brady Capshaw also has set school records for hits (52) and RBI (54).Both Woodard and Capshaw hit over .600 during the regular season, and for one day in April, Woodard was the top high school hitter in the nation on maxpreps.com with a .753 average.“We know if we keep hitting the ball like this, we’ll be hard to beat,” said Woodard, whose average actually dropped to .563 after he went 2-for-4 in the regional quarterfinals.While the team and individual records are nice, Woodard said the most important goal now is making it to the state tournament for the first time in school history.Has the playoff run surprised you at all or did you expect this?We’ve been working pretty hard for the past couple of years knowing that we could make it pretty far this year. We’ve got really good chemistry because we’ve been playing together so long.Who have you played with the longest?I’ve been playing with [outfielder] Jason Yeley since I was about 12 years old, and I’ve played with most of the juniors since the eighth grade.You and Brady Capshaw are a pretty strong one-two punch. Any competition between you?Not at all. We don’t even worry about our [batting] averages. It’s all about team. As far as pitching goes, we both have our strengths and weaknesses. Everybody says I’ve got a pretty good curveball, but he throws harder than me, so it all depends on what kind of hitting team we’re facing.What’s been your personal highlight so far this season?Probably when we played Brock the second time, knowing they were No. 1 in 2A and they were the only team that beat us. It was tied up at 4-4 and the bases were loaded and I hit a grand slam. That was an awesome feeling.What do you do to get ready for a big game?I listen to my iPod the whole bus ride. I got this little speaker thing right after prom so the whole team can all listen to it on the way to the game. The music gets us pretty pumped up.So you’re the DJ? What’s on your playlist?A whole bunch of different stuff — rap, country, rock. We mostly listen to the rap to get us pumped up.At what point this season did you start seriously thinking you might have what it takes to win a state championship?I think the first game of district when we played Glen Rose. After we beat them, we knew we could do it. We started crushing the ball as a team. Everyone was hitting, and we haven’t really stopped.If you had to pitch against this Kennedale lineup, how tough would that be?Pretty tough, because I can only remember one game when we didn’t hit well and that was against Joshua. Other than that, we’ve hit every pitcher. That’s why I’m pumped about this game. Everyone’s talking about how fast their pitcher throws, but I really think we can hit him.What one hitter would you not want to face?Brady. He can really hit. If you throw him a strike, he’s going to hit it.Lori Dann, 817-390-7760
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