Fort Worth Paschal baseball bidding for some history

The Panthers will travel to Norman, Okla., in hopes of scaling heights not seen since Paschal’s 1950 state title.

“As far we can tell and what the alumni have told me, if we can keep it going another week, it will be the farthest we’ve come,” said Preston, in his fourth season as head coach. “It’s an awesome ride, and this is actually the first class of kids I’ve had that were freshmen when I became the head coach.”

Paschal has won two playoff rounds despite little playoff success over the last three years.

After two-game sweeps in the bi-district and area rounds of the playoffs, Paschal (25-6) will find Amarillo (25-12) waiting at 7 p.m. Friday in Game 1 of the series at the University of Oklahoma’s L. Dale Mitchell Park.

Amarillo defeated Paschal in the 2008 regional quarterfinals.

“They’re loaded with players like they always are,” Preston said of the Sandies. “For us, we’re just constantly reminding ourselves to put our most consistent offense and defense on the field and just extend this thing another week.”

The Panthers had a regular-season finale loss, 1-0, to Arlington that kept them from at least tying Weatherford for the District 4-6A title.

Paschal beat Odessa and El Paso Americas by an average margin of two runs in the playoffs, so pitching and defense has been a huge factor.

Second baseman Marc Zamora ended Game 2 with El Paso Americas, by chasing down a sharp grounder to right field, then firing over to a stretching Grey Woodard at first base.

The play not only ended the game, but kept Americas from putting runners on first and third.

“Our center fielder, Cruz Shope, made an incredible play on the warning track against Odessa that really showed me how much our kids understand the importance of making plays,” Preston said.

Shope fielded a double to left-center cleanly, then came up firing to Reese McDonald at the cutoff position, who relayed to catcher Brayden Conner for the third out in the top of the fourth inning.

It was a heads-up, run-saving play, that helped spell the difference in a 2-1 win in Game 1 of that bi-district series.

Getting it done in the close games has been a staple all season. Since the 11-0 start, the Panthers have gone 14-6, with 14 games decided by three runs or fewer.

Over the last nine games, Paschal has averaged 4.63 runs per game.

Preston pointed to seniors Drew Medford and Sergio Conchas, the No. 3 and No. 4 hitters in the Panthers’ lineup, as contributors with the type of mentality that has produced positive results for Paschal’s play this season.

“I’ve seen these guys come into our program as boys and now they’re young men,” Preston said. “The maturation process has been incredible when you consider that last weekend, we twice bunted Drew and Sergio with runners on base.

“Those guys will do anything we ask them to do and not because we ask, but because they understand the game and they understand what it takes to win. It’s not about statistics for them, it’s about how far we can extend this thing.”

This story was originally published May 18, 2016 at 5:40 PM with the headline "Fort Worth Paschal baseball bidding for some history."