GAMES
RANKINGS
Fulshear junior ace and University of Houston commit Austin Vargas.
Vargas lifts Fulshear to bi-district playoff sweep
FULSHEAR—Fulshear baseball coach Robb Jensen has a ridiculous wealth of quality pitching. There are at least five quality arms the veteran coach can turn to at any given time, which is quite the luxury to have during the postseason.
The best of those is University of Houston commit Austin Vargas, a hard-throwing junior left-hander who stands 6-foot-6 and 185 pounds. Coming off a perfect game against Rosenberg Terry on April 27 in which he struck out 17 on only 83 pitches, Vargas was strong again in the Chargers’ Class 5A-Region III bi-district playoff opener Friday against Houston Austin at home.
Vargas faced only 11 batters over three innings, striking out eight, walking three and allowing no runs or hits over 51 pitches to lead Fulshear to a 10-0 Game 1 win in five innings. The Chargers (19-9-1) followed that with an 11-4 win in Game 2 to sweep Austin (13-10-1) and advance to the area playoffs next week.
“I felt the first two innings were good. I kind of got in my head in the third inning,” said Vargas, who gave up two walks in his final frame. “But I got it back together. Gave up no runs, so it was a good outing.”
Vargas tops out at 92 miles per hour on his fastball and sits around 89-91. But he hasn’t always thrown hard.
He was throwing 79-81 miles per hour as a freshman. The following summer, he trained with Derrick Spivey, owner of Performance Edge HTX who specializes in player development and data analysis.
“He really broke everything down and told me what to do,” Vargas said. “Everything changed from there.”
Since then, Vargas has been electric. He has a devastating slider to accompany his fastball. His curveball hovers around 78 miles per hour.
“His swagger, his pitch mix, his location. His movement,” senior catcher Hudson Yarbrough said. “All that. It’s like catching a pro.”
Vargas said his improvement has come more mentally than anything else. Instead of just throwing every pitch as hard as he can, which was his M.O. last year, Vargas’ focus has been pounding the strike zone.
Twenty-nine of Vargas’ 51 pitches against Austin were strikes.
His demeanor is also better.
“Mentally, I was a very angry person last year,” Vargas said. “Every time I’d walk somebody or make a mistake, I’d get down on myself. Now when something like that happens, I step off the mound, rub my hair and reset. Focus on the next guy. One batter doesn’t affect a whole game. Just relax.”
This season, Vargas is 5-2 with a 2.36 ERA and 96 strikeouts to 27 walks with a .154 batting-average against.
Fulshear started another Class of 2023 NCAA Division I pitcher in Game 2 in junior right-hander Regan Carter, a Pacific commit who breezed through two innings on 27 pitches, striking out three, walking one and allowing no hits or runs.
“Austin and Regan, I think, are the best two in the state, and I think we’re going to go super far with them,” Yarbrough said. “They don’t make me work a lot. They throw strikes. They don’t really miss that much.”
Out of the bullpen, the Chargers used sophomore right-hander Matt Macklin, sophomore left-hander Caven Fuentes, freshman right-hander Jaden Loggins, freshman right-hander Ty Powell and junior right-hander Tyler Schumann. They gave up a combined four runs on four hits over seven innings, striking out 12 and walking four.
“It’s amazing,” Vargas said. “I feel like if I get pulled from the game, we can rely on any guy coming in. It’s nice to know that.”
The Chargers’ bats accounted for 21 runs on 20 hits with 14 walks to five strikeouts. Schumann had a two-run home run. Layne Arroyos went 5-for-6 with five RBIs. Powell walked four times and had a two-run single.
Fulshear has surrendered 97 runs in 29 games.
“Our pitching brings the energy,” said Yarbrough, “and then our bats feed off that.”
Foster opened the playoffs with a 16-0 win over Milby on Wednesday, improving to 29-6.
Foster routs Milby to open playoffs, eyes area round challenge
RICHMOND—Foster’s softball program has plenty of tradition.
The Falcons have made the playoffs every season since the school opened in 2003. They were state finalists in 2018.
This season, Foster yearns to get back to the standard of lengthy playoff runs. The Falcons have not been past the area round since that 2018 season, and that is goal No. 1.
Wednesday was a fine start in the right direction.
Foster opened the postseason routing an outmatched Milby team, 16-0, in three innings at Foster High School to win its Class 5A bi-district playoff. Twelve runs on 10 hits in the second inning was more than enough.
Foster, ranked No. 18 in Class 5A in the state and No. 6 in the Greater Houston area, improved to 29-6.
“Going in, we’re obviously thinking we need to push ourselves,” said senior Ripley Welker, who went 2-for-3 with four RBIs, including a two-run homer. “Every single one of us thinks we’re capable of going far. We haven’t been past the second round since my eighth-grade year, and I really think this year we have a lot of potential to see that through.”
The Falcons will likely get defending state champ Barbers Hill in the area round next week. The Eagles, ranked No. 3 in the state, play Manvel in their bi-district matchup this week.
Barbers Hill eliminated Foster in the 2019 bi-district playoffs. The 2020 season was abruptly canceled because of the coronavirus. Crosby beat Foster 2-1 in a best-of-three area series last season.
“Just knowing that everyone is beatable, and anyone can win on any given day,” Foster coach Keely Shuler said. “Barbers Hill has a great program, and not getting that hype in our heads that it’s Barbers Hill will be important. We are Foster. We know we can show up and compete with any of the top programs, so keeping that mentality and staying confident at the plate will be key.”
Foster returned more than 10 players from last year’s team. As a result, it’s a more experienced and resilient club.
“It’s a different type of maturity level,” said junior Mickayla Tosch, who went 3-for-3 with three RBIs against Milby, including a two-run home run. “We’ve been in this situation before. We have a lot of returners. We’re a lot more mature than we were last year.”
Shuler said she has a very supportive team. The bond and chemistry have been significant to the Falcons’ success. Welker said the team knows how good it is and knows what it has to do to get over the area round hump.
“What we need to do is adjust early to the pitcher and stay focused,” Welker said. “We really need to believe in ourselves. Stay positive and lift each other up. Last year, I think we were complacent and didn’t really push ourselves. We weren’t expecting it.”
Foster has the bats and pitching to be a potent team. The Falcons had 15 hits in two innings against Milby. No one struck out. Foster pitching, led by senior Peyton Welker, struck out six Milby batters and surrendered two baserunners in three innings.
“This builds our confidence,” Tosch said of the win. “We know we can play. We just have to play at our level.”