Burnet baseball aim to end district play the right way

CAPTION: Burnet senior Kade Shaw and the Bulldogs want to end the regular season with momentum starting with the final District 24-4A ball game. Photo by Stennis Shotts

The Burnet High School baseball team welcomes Lago Vista at 7 p.m. Friday, April 26, for its final District 24-4A contest of the 2024 season.

The Bulldogs (24-4, 12-2 district champions) want to honor their seniors with a bounce back performance after losing to the Vikings (17-7-1, 9-5 co-district runners-up) 9-6 April 23.

Burnet head coach Russell Houston believes a loss can be a valuable teaching tool.

“As long as you learn from it, it can help you,” he said. “It also can hurt you. Baseball is all about confidence in how you’re feeling and playing. I do think late-season losses that don’t have an affect your district standings can help you as long as you take it the right way. (My players) are focused — there’s no doubt. It’s baseball. You play 30 games in a season, you’re bound to lose a couple.”

Burnet took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and added 4 more in the third.

But Lago Vista responded in the bottom of the third inning to take a 7-6 lead.

“We gave up 5 walks in one inning and a couple of hits,” Houston said.

In the sixth inning, the Vikings added more runs thanks to a throwing error when the Bulldogs tried to pick off a runner. Runners were on first and second base.

“Put a quarter in the merry-go-round,” the Bulldogs coach said.

Burnet issued 10 walks in the contest.

“That’s hard to overcome,” Houston said.

Defensively, the Vikings recorded 3 double plays, including one in the seventh inning with Bulldogs on first and second base and no outs. The next batter hit into a double play.

That’s why Houston simply tipped his cap to Lago Vista for its performance.

“That’s something I haven’t seen in a long time,” he said. “It’s hard to overcome two outs in one swing. It’s difficult to overcome. That’s baseball. They made a play. We ended up not scoring. They had double plays in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings. They played well enough to win. It’s baseball sometimes.”

Weather permitting, Burnet will welcome Troy at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 27, at Bulldog Diamonds before the start of the Class 4A playoffs next week.

“This is a mature ball club,” Houston said. “You hope your kiddos are in position to make plays and when they get the opportunity to make plays, they make them.”

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