What mindset will Aledo baseball carry into UIL state championship?
Friday’s Class 5A Division I state championship at Dell Diamond in Round Rock won’t be too intimidating for Aledo baseball.
That’s because all nine of the starters experienced the thrills of a UIL Texas high school baseball title game last season. At 4 p.m., the Bearcats will search for their first championship repeat in program history and third overall title against Montgomery Lake Creek (26-17).
“We know what the pressure feels like, and how high of a stage this is, so we know that we just got to come out and play our brand of baseball,” Aledo senior Wilson Sehnem said. “We’ve gone through our routines all week for practice. I think that we’re prepared, and if we go play our brand of baseball, no one can beat us.”
Aledo head coach Chad Barry said he hopes the experience will be a big advantage.
“They weren’t necessarily all on the field, but they’ve all been [to Round Rock],’ Barry said. “They’ve all seen that magnitude of that game, they’ve seen the pressures of it, and so hopefully, that will help them settle their nerves early and buckle down and play good baseball.”
Aledo has looked unbeatable at times throughout the season. The Bearcats have lost three total games, and two were to Class 6A programs.
“We preach each week that the most important game is the next game,” Barry said. “[The state championship] happens to be the next game, and it’s also the last game of the season being played. So, we want to go out and try to play our very best baseball game that we’ve played all year.
“We want to relax and realize that, yeah, the magnitude of the game is big, and there’s a lot of external factors that take away from baseball itself, but at the end of the day, it’s still a baseball game. We have to go out, and we have to get 21 outs, and we have to go play baseball better than the team across from us.”
Lake Creek doesn’t have a comparable resume to the reigning state champions but does have something even more important: Momentum. Barry emphasized the importance of not underestimating anyone.
“I don’t think anybody expected them to be here,” Barry said. “I think everybody was kind of expecting it to be Leander Rouse. … They came out of nowhere. They got into the playoffs and got on a hot streak. They’ve been rolling since they entered the playoffs, and you know they have a lot of confidence, and they should be very confident in what they’re doing, because whatever they’re doing has been working for them.”
The Bearcats have lots of momentum, too. They swept through Denton Ryan, Fort Worth Paschal, Amarillo, El Paso Americas and McKinney North en route to Round Rock. And according to Aledo senior Jackson Loos, they’ve received everyone’s best shot.
“We have a target on our back,” Loos said. “Everybody wanted to give us their best, because we have a state title, and now we’re going to defend that.”
Nine innings to take it all
In a winner takes all game, Barry will have a lot of pitchers ready to throw and a lot of decisions to make. Potential rain in Round Rock could complicate things.
“We’ll have plans in place for, you know, if we get stopped, and now this picture is no longer available,” Barry said. “Who’s going to be the next in line, depending on what the score is, what inning we’re in, what part of their lineup we’re in, things like that, and so we’ll piece it together inning by inning, if need be.”
One part of his plan is set in stone, and as he said, “It’s no secret.” LSU signee and potential MLB draft prospect Lucas Nawrocki, a left-handed pitcher with a fastball in the mid-90s, a dangerous slider, and a knack for challenging hitters in the strike zone, will start the game.
“I think the key is him relaxing and trying to be who he’s been all year,” Barry said. “Don’t try to do anything different than what he’s done all season long. Go out there, pound the zone, make guys put the ball in play to get on base and limit the walk. When he does things like that, it’s really hard to string together several hits to score runs on him. And so, I think that plays into our benefit.”
Offensively, the squad hopes to carry over the success shown all season. The Bearcats are averaging nearly eight runs per contest, an improvement over the 2025 season, when they averaged six. They can put barrels to balls, but at the same time, they’ve seen success with small ball, smart base running and situational hitting.
“Just play our baseball,” Loos said. “We’re the best team when we step on the field. We play our baseball, and there’s no one else who can hang with us. As long as we just play for each other, and you just hand the bat off and don’t play for yourself, I think it’ll fall into place. “
A curtain call for seniors
As Aledo senior Kyle Poindexter prepares to end his career as a Bearcat, he’s focused on “going out with a bang.”
“[The state championship] is what my high school career has been leading up to right here,” Poindexter said. “ ... It just means the world to me that we can come out here, play one last game with my brothers, and just be out here with them.”
To Sehnem, the game marks the culmination of not only his high school baseball career, but his childhood.
“I’ve been here [in Aledo] my whole life, and I’ve just been looking up to the varsity players as a kid,” Sehnem said. “I think that those kids are looking up and saying, ‘We can do this.’ All my friends and I have been playing baseball our whole lives together, and now that we’re all playing together for the varsity team, I think [repeating as champions] is a really special opportunity.”
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