SEGUIN — There aren’t very many high school baseball teams in the state of Texas that had the chance to play after their graduation date, but Boerne Champion was one of them.
The Chargers graduated last Thursday and then played Games 2 and 3 of their series against Leander Rouse that weekend. Champion was hoping to play a little longer, but the Raiders defeated the Chargers in last Saturday’s winner-take-all Game 3 in Seguin.
After Champion had closed the gap to 5-4, Rouse pulled away by scoring the last five runs of the game for the 10-4 win.
The Chargers end their season at 34-8-1 and graduated nine seniors. Seniors are Nick Landin, Garland Whitehead, Brody Bendele, Ethan Jensen, Jaedyn Yamaguchi, Parker Davis, Austin Garritano, Blake Ott and Jacob Whitaker.
Champion coach Ben Woodchick said the seniors left quite a legacy and would be missed.
“A lot of the legacy that goes into this program falls on their backs,” he said. “That relationship we’ve forged through it all is super special for me.”
Only Whitehead was on the varsity as a freshman in 2023 when the Chargers played Rouse for the regional title that Champion claimed and moved on to play at the state tourney. The Raiders took the regional title this year and played in the state semis this weekend.
Champion got hot offensively in last Saturday’s game, but it was only for one inning and the team was already trailing 5-0 before that happened. A walk to Jaxson Denman and a double by Whitehead got them going in the fourth frame. Ott grounded out but brought in Denman and it was 5-1.
From there, Bendele smacked a 2-run homer over the left field fence to score himself and Whitehead and the Chargers had cut the gap to 5-3. With the bases loaded and two outs, Yamaguchi walked and brought in Lyndon Austin to make it 5-4, but that’s as close as the Chargers would get.
Rouse fired back with 2 runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it 7-4 and then added 3 in the bottom of the fifth for the 10-4 lead that held until the end.
The Chargers didn’t get many breaks early and had a couple of interference calls that went against them and also lost a starter due to an injury in the outfield chasing a deeply hit ball.
“The game was out of our control more than we’ve had all year. You make mistakes against good teams because they put pressure on you,” Woodchick said. “There was a time when it was under control, but it was brief. We had a lot of momentum, but Rouse bounced back; they’re a dang good ball team.”
It was pitching by committee on both sides after the Chargers used four different arms and the Raiders threw three different pitchers in Saturday’s game.
Brody Eisert started and was replaced by Game 2 closer Parker Davis. Cal Isley, normally the closer, made an early appearance and then Caleb Brown finished it out in the sixth.
Jack Doss started for Rouse and was pulled during Champion’s rally in the fourth but since the Chargers never tied the game, Doss recorded the win and remained undefeated at 8-0.
Rouse tallied 7 hits and Champion had 6 hits, the homer by Bendele, a double and single by Whitehead, two singles from Isley and a single from Owen Kuhl.
While they are graduating nine seniors, Woodchick said the players that are returning are excited about next year.
“The way the program is built, people are excited about next year and rightfully so,” he said. “We have a lot of juniors that are super hungry. They’ve looked at the success the seniors have had and are asking, why not us?”
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