Baseball clinches playoff spot for first time since 2016

Senior Zach Bailey steps up to the plate. He set a school record with a 0.56 Earned Run Average, according to the official school baseball Twitter account.

Gordon Smith

Senior Zach Bailey steps up to the plate. He set a school record with a 0.56 Earned Run Average, according to the official school baseball Twitter account.

The Colt baseball team secured their spot in the UIL state tournament Tuesday night with a dominating 17-0 win over Sam Houston.

The team currently stands in second place in District 4-6A, with only one game remaining in the regular season. The Colts have won 18 games this year, while only losing 8. They have a 9-4 record in district play.

In the beginning of the season, the team started off strong with big non-district wins over Lewisville, Plano and Lubbock Coronado. The momentum they garnered then carried them into the biggest part of their season, their district schedule.

They began district play with a series sweep of North Crowley and a series split with Mansfield. The biggest games of the year were yet to come, however. A huge two-game set against rival Martin loomed large in positioning of the district standings.

“Our biggest series wins were against Martin, 7-5 and 2-0,” head coach David Nix said.

These two wins allowed the Colts to be in prime position in the district standings with only a few games remaining in the season. According to the coaches, everybody on the team has contributed equally this season, declining to delve into naming the most important player on the team.

“I don’t want to single out one player as MVP, it has been a total team effort,” Nix said.

As a whole, the AHS pitching staff has only surrendered 42 runs in 13 district games, for an average of 3.23 runs allowed per game. Senior P Zach Bailey set a school record with a 0.56 Earned Run Average, according to the official school baseball twitter account. Junior P Harrison Hammond has also done a solid job as starter for the Colts.

Seniors Sam Brown, Jaret Granger, Zach Fulton and Alan Falks have led the offensive attack for the Colts. As a team the have scored 86 runs in district games, for an average of 6.62 runs scored per game.

According to Coach Nix, the Colts baseball team will “play district 3-6A in the first round.” It is unclear who they will play or where the games will take place. The playoff-bound teams from that particular district include Keller, Abilene, Keller Timber Creek and Weatherford.

Before the playoffs, Arlington must finish their regular season with Senior Night. Colt baseball will take on Sam Houston tonight at AHS at 7 p.m.