VYPE Live Series Spotlight: Austin High vs. Del Valle

Westlake and Lake Travis have been sitting atop the District 26-6A standings for the better part of a decade. Bowie usually joins them in the playoff hunt, joined more recently by Dripping Springs when the Tigers moved up to 6A. Although the pathway to the playoffs is slightly more open in other sports than it is in football, that still doesn’t leave a lot of room for anyone else to reach the playoffs.

Not content to wait until the Cavs and the Chaps move into a different district next season the Austin High Maroons might be eyeballing the district race with a slightly more hopeful attitude this season. Lake Travis was supposed to be the dominant team in this year’s race, but the Cavs are only off to a 7-8-1 start. Westlake enters district play at 7-10 overall. (Not that anyone expects either of those squads to struggle for long.) Meanwhile, Bowie is 12-3-1 and Dripping Springs is 12-4-1. So, the window is still narrow.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying this week’s district opening series between Austin High and Del Valle is more important than it looks. While Coach Brad Bohannon’s Del Valle Cardinals have some talent back, including six of their eight position players, and have already nearly matched last year’s win total, they still enter district play at just 4-9-1 overall.

Coach Alejandro Arellanes’ Austin High Maroons, on the other hand, have posted a 7-6-1 mark in tournament play, already surpassing last year’s 6-18 mark. A closer look reveals they’re a combined 4-2 on the first day of each of their three tournaments; days that, theoretically at least, they’re throwing their top two pitchers. Two or three solid pitchers go a long way in district play. Add in some experienced stalwarts like senior catcher Osby Contreras, outfielder Patrick Byrd and senior pitcher/outfielder combos Henry Chuter and Jayson Martinez and the Maroons have enough talent to make things interesting.

Austin High has improved to where they’re the “favorite” to at least finish fifth. To make the postseason, they’ll need to sweep Del Valle and Akins and poach a couple of games from the other four. That’s not that farfetched. One of their two district wins last season came against a Dripping Springs squad that reached the state semifinals. Anything can happen in baseball.

First things first, starting with this week’s series between Austin High and Del Valle and we’ll have the broadcasts for you on VYPE.