After bye Burnet baseball ready for final regular season series
CAPTION: Drake Milam is one of several Bulldogs who is producing at the plate. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Burnet High School baseball team returns to District 24-4A play after enjoying its bye week.
The Bulldogs welcome Georgetown Gateway Tuesday, April 22, before traveling there Friday, April 25, to finish the series. Each game starts at 7 p.m.
They will honor their seniors before the Tuesday home game. Burnet simply needs to win at least one of the next two games to return to the Class 4A playoffs.
Head coach Russell Houston said that though the Bulldogs didn’t play an opponent last week, two of their practices had intersquad scrimmages. Those happened April 15 and 17.
He said the scrimmages served many positives. First, it kept the Bulldogs in their two-games-a-week routine. Secondly, it gave pitchers the opportunity to go against live hitters and vice versa. And finally, players tend to be more mentally engaged during a contest as opposed to doing drill work.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” he said. “Our pitchers threw about 45 to 50 pitches. You want to keep your game routine as much as you can. We were trying to keep it as normal as possible.”
He noted the starters didn’t throw more than about 40 pitches.
“We didn’t let them throw as deep as they would on game day,” Houston said. “We wanted to keep their rhythm and keep some normalcy.”
The scrimmages also allowed the Bulldogs to experience many of the same scenarios they face during a game. That replication is invaluable, Houston said.
In addition, coaches spent more time studying and correcting form, footwork and other parts of the sport to ensure the Bulldogs’ muscle memory was sharp.
“We went back to basics,” the coach said. “We did some short fundamental work. We emphasized the fundamentals to do things the right way.”
He said the bye week allowed the Bulldogs to still get invaluable work in while not having to worry about traveling or other parts of a normal game week. He said the team is re-energized for the final week and what’s coming – another run in the Class 4A playoffs.
