Published: May 07, 2008 09:22 pm            

Navarro ready for Region XIV tourney

It has been a record-breaking season for the Navarro Bulldogs baseball team.

The Bulldogs eclipsed their regular-season wins record of 44 by going 46-9 for the year.

Now they are hoping to carry their regular-season success into the Region XIV Tournament at Northeast College in Mount Pleasant beginning Saturday.

Navarro exited the tournament early last year, first falling to San Jacinto 12-2 in the first round, and then being eliminated after a 4-3 loss to Alvin.

“This is a hard tournament,” coach Whoa Dill said. “Whoever gets hot can win it.

“We have been hot all year and hopefully we can carry that into the tournament and win it. But our ultimate goal is to go to Grand Junction, Colo. for the World Series.”

The No.1 seeded Bulldogs will first have to get past their first round opponent — No. 4 seed Blinn College.

“Blinn is always good,” Dill said. “It is going to be good competition for us in the first round and Blinn is going to be ready to play.”

It was February 9 the last time these two teams met and the Bulldogs got the best of Blinn, winning 5-1.

“Once you get in the tournament anything can happen,” shortstop Brock Holt said. “We still have to go out there and play our game, and hopefully, we can jump on them early, take the lead, keep hitting and playing defense.”

After suffering a shoulder injury in the second game of a doubleheader against Paris, April 19, Holt is back in the lineup and said he is ready to get back into his role on the team.

If Navarro (25-3 Region XIV) can get past Blinn in the first round, it will face either Alvin or Texarkana in the second round.

After defeating both teams this year, Ross Hubbard said the team is not worried about which team they may eventually face.

“I feel really confident going against either team,” Hubbard said. “I think we can hit either one of their best pitchers and I think our pitchers can go out do what they need to do against both teams.”

Hubbard led Navarro in home runs (12), slugging (.700) and was second in on-base percentage (.491).

Hitting has not been a problem for Navarro this season, finishing the year 20th in the nation in team batting average at .346.

“Just one guy isn’t going to have to carry the load for us to win,” Dill said. “This is one of the best one-through-nine hitting teams we have had here.”

If a powerful offense wasn’t enough, the Bulldogs also have the conference’s pitcher of the year in Bryan Bingham.

Bingham ended the year with an 11-1 season record, with an ERA of 3.03.

Dill recognizes the old adage, ‘pitching wins championships’, but feels that this tournament will come down to who can score the most runs.

“We have several pitchers that can get the job done,” he said. “Pitching is what gets you there, but when it gets late in this tournaments it turns into who can hit the best.”

Navarro heads into the double elimination tournament with a 29-6 record away from Graham Field and has went the entire season without suffering back-to-back losses.

        

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