Abilene High quiets Lubbock Monterey, notches third straight district baseball victory

There’s a vibe coming off Blackburn Field lately that hasn’t been felt in quite a while. The Abilene High baseball team is winning games – something that was rare the previous two years.

The Eagles won a combined 11 games the previous two years, including five in district and only two last year.

Now, after knocking off Lubbock Monterey 5-0 in a District 4-5A game Tuesday night, the Eagles have a three-game win streak and they’re tied for second place in league play.

There’s an excitement in the dugout and stands that hasn’t been there since the team last made the playoffs in 2018.

It’s a far cry from Beckham Paul’s first year with the Eagles last year as a sophomore.

“No one really cared,” Paul said. “It was just Abilene High baseball. No one paid attention to it. There wasn’t much expectation for us. Practices, there were no discipline. It was easy going.”

Paul said some players on the team didn’t care, either.

“Some of us did,” Paul said. “Others, they could care less. That brought our team down a lot.”

Brady Bennett, a junior also playing his second year with the varsity, said no one respected AHS baseball.

“People heard Abilene baseball and thought it was a dub before we even got there,” Bennett said. “This year, the tone has definitely changed. I people definitely are starting to see that Abilene High baseball is not what it used to be.”

Abilene High improved to 7-11 overall and 4-2 in district with Tuesday’s win over Monterey (8-12, 4-2). The Eagles have a shot at tying Wylie for the league lead when they play the Bulldogs on Friday at Wylie.

First-year coach Brad Harman hasn’t been surprised with the Eagles’ turnaround.

“They’ve had a hunger from Day 1,” said Harman, who came to AHS after turning around the Big Spring program. “We’ve pushed them. We’ve pushed them to the limit, and they’ve responded.”

Paul gives a lot of credit to Harman and his coaching staff. Their faith in the players have convinced the Eagles they can win.

It helps that Harman expects them to put in work and believe, too.

“Coach Harman holds an expectation for us that we have to be at,” Paul said. “If not, we’re going to hear from him. Our energy is way better this. Our mood is better, and everyone has bought in.”

Added Bennett: “Coach Harman, he made it known very fast that it was not going to be like how it was last year. Everybody followed.”

Taking down the Plainsmen

Of course, it takes more than faith. You’ve got get the job done on the field.

The Eagles did that Tuesday night. Bennett tossed a four-hit shutout, striking out three and walking two.

AHS got all the runs it needed with a two-run first inning. Paul hit an RBI triple and scored on Trey Simpson’s sacrifice fly.

“Man, tonight was a good night,” Bennett said. “I felt great. The energy was high in the dugout. We jumped on them early, and that really set the tone for the rest of the game. I went out there. I had confidence.”

The Eagles iced the game with a three-run sixth. Paul reached on a wild pitch strikeout, and Simpson singled. Jake Breckenridge also reached, loading the bases, when the Plainsmen tried to get the force at third on his sacrifice bunt. The throw was too late. With a 1-1 count to Rylan Stokes, two runs scored on an errant pickoff throw.

Casen Kilmer followed with an RBI single.

The Eagles, who had just six hits, did enough with the bats to support Bennett’s gem.

“It starts with the guy on the mound, and he did a phenomenal job from the first pitch to the last of just throwing strikes, keeping them off balance,” Harman said of Bennett. “Our defense played behind him. Monterey squared up some baseballs, and we had some guys make some plays.

“That’s kind of what our program is about. Pitch it and let the gloves play behind you. We’ll scrap some runs when we can. It was a total team effort tonight.”

Bennett praised his catcher.

“Rylan Stokes, our catcher, called a heck of a game,” Bennett said. “He made blocks when he needed to, and I made pitches when I needed to.”

Faith pays off quickly

Bennett helped start the current three-game win streak. He allowed a run on three hits in an 11-2 win over Lubbock High last Thursday. He struck out five and walked four in five innings.

The Eagles followed with a 15-6 win over Lubbock-Cooper on Saturday. Both games were on the road.

The Eagles’ success might be coming a little faster than they even they thought it would.

“I feel like they thought it could happen, but the road was going to be long – which it has,” Harman said. “But they’ve sped the process up by the way they come to work every day. So, obviously, when you start to have some success, the buy in has sped up a lot faster, but that’s because of their efforts and their mentality.”

There’s still a lot of district games left, since every team in the league plays each other three times. The Eagles just finished the first third of the district play, and now they’ve got Wylie and Abilene Cooper up next. Wylie beat them 6-0 in the first meeting March 10 at Blackburn, while the Cooper won 12-8 at Cougar Field.

“I tell them every ballgame, it’s just one of 18,” Harman said. “We want to swing that sledgehammer and knock one piece of that rock off. Eventually, that rock is going to crack.

“We can’t go out there in district game three, four, five or six and think we’re going to deliver one blow of that sledgehammer and it’s done. This is going to be a long process.

“But they’re coming to work every single game. We’re proud. We’re going to enjoy this one tonight and then get back to work tomorrow for the next one.”

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Abilene High upends Lubbock High for District 4-5A baseball victory