Pleasant Grove Aims for Back-To-Back Class 3A State Baseball Championships Thursday Against LaGrange

Class 3A
State Championship

Pleasant Grove Hawks (28-13)
vs.
LaGrange Leopards (25-9)

6:30 p.m. Thursday
UFCU Disch-Falk Field, Austin

Coaches

Pleasant Grove -- Craig Jones
LaGrange -- Brad Harbers

How they got here

Pleasant Grove

• Bi-district: bye (District 13-3A champion)
• Area: def. Bullard 2-0 in series (4-2, 2-0)
• Region II quarterfinal: def. Athens 2-0 in series (10-0, 4-1)
• Region II semifinal: def. Princeton 2-1 in series (W 9-3, L 2-1, W 5-0)
• Region II final: def. Melissa 2-1 in series (W 4-2, L 1-0, W 8-4)
• State semifinal: def. Lubbock Cooper 7-3

LaGrange

• Bi-district: bye (District 26-3A champion)
• Area: def. La Vernia 12-7
• Region IV quarterfinal: def. Needville 2-1 in series (W 4-3, L 6-5, W 3-2)
• Region IV semifinal: def. Hidalgo Early College 3-1
• Region IV final: def. Sinton 6-2
• State semifinal: def. Silsbee 8-3

Players to watch

Pleasant Grove

• P/OF Trey Jeans, Jr. (.370; 7-3)
• P/1B Jarod Bayless, Soph. (.266; 7-4)
• P Dalton Willige, Sr. (.250; 5-0)
• UTL Casey Rayburn, Sr. (.342)
• P/CF Dylan Silvey, Jr. (.293)
• P/1B Marshall McPherson, Jr. (.215; 4-1)
• 2B/P Alex Alsup, Sr. (.293; 1-1)
• SS/P Ty Harp, Sr. (.294; 1-4)
• 3B/P Joe Pearlman, Fr. (.345; 2-for-3, 3 RBIs in Wednesday's state semifinal)

LaGrange

• P/3B Logan Vinklarek, Sr. (.377; 8-2)
• P/3B Trey Supak, Jr. (.351; 5-2)
• SS Tanner Fritsch, Sr. (.405)
• UTL Dalton Burton, Jr. (.394; 1-1)
• OF Kolby Kolek, Sr. (.368; 2-for-3, inside-the-park grand slam in Wednesday's state semifinal)
• OF/P Dustin Drab, Sr. (.354; 3-2)
• P/1B Kyle Oltman, Soph. (3-1)
• IF Rustin Heger, Jr. (.202; 2-0)
• 1B/P Chris Raborn, Sr. (.200; 2-1)

Did you know?

• Pleasant Grove, which is in its sixth consecutive state tournament, is playing for its third Class 3A state championship in four seasons. The Hawks won the 2010 and 2012 state titles.
• In addition to its six consecutive state tournament berths, Pleasant Grove got to Austin in 1989 as well.
• Pleasant Grove is 50-7 in the playoffs since 2008, according to the Texarkana Gazette.
• Pleasant Grove has hit zero home runs and one triple the entire season.
• Pleasant Grove is 18-3 since starting the season 10-10.
• LaGrange is 21-6 since starting the season 4-3.
• LaGrange is playing in its eight state tournament, but only the third in the last 26 seasons (2001, 2004).
• LaGrange has played in five state championships, winning 3A titles in 1973, 2001, and 2004. The Leopards lost the 1980 2A title to Linden-Kildare and the 1983 3A title to Kenedy.
• LaGrange and Pleasant Grove were the two smallest schools of the four at this year's 3A state tournament with enrollments of 633 and 635, respectively. Lubbock Cooper reported an enrollment of 1,021, while Silsbee's was 767.