WR-TATUM SERIES ALTERED | Now begins Wednesday at Rusk; let’s have a preview
West Rusk and Tatum are in the same district: 16-3A.
They’ve already played twice with Tatum winning both games 7-1 on March 19th and 8-5 on April 12th.
They know each other pretty well, but will meet again in this week’s UIL Class 3A best-of-three-game Regional Quarterfinals.
The series was to be played in its entirety at Bullard’s Brook Hill High School, but it’s been altered a bit due to expected inclement weather.
Game one is now scheduled for Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Rusk High School. West Rusk is the home team (Original plans had called for the first game to be Thursday at Brook Hill).
For now, game two is still set for Friday at 7 p.m. at Brook Hill, with Tatum as the home team. If Game three is necessary, it’ll be Saturday at noon, also at Brook Hill, with the coaches flipping for home.
Now that all of that is out of the way…
Tatum, which finished first in the district with an 11-1 record, reached the third round of the playoffs by sweeping White Oak 10-0 and 2-0, and then sweeping Winnsboro 5-1 and 6-3.
Meanwhile, West Rusk, the fourth-place playoff entry from the district, raised some eyebrows when they swept New Diana in the first round (bi-district) 3-0 and 5-3. Then, the Raiders won a best-of-three series against DeKalb 2-1, winning Game 1 6-3 and the deciding Game 3 5-2, after dropping the middle game 4-3.
The Raiders are in the playoffs for the third year in a row, finishing as the runner-up to the Eagles in each of the previous two seasons. This year, though, Troup was the runner-up and Elysian Fields was third.
West Rusk coach Tyler Wilbanks feels his club is on a little bit of a run since dropping the last three games of district play to fall into fourth place in the standings. They rallied to blank Waskom 15-0 and have won four of five playoff games thus far.
“We’ve had some players, a lot of our seniors, step up and we’re playing pretty good right now,” Wilbanks continued.
He as well as his club realize how good the Eagles are. “I believe they are similar to New Diana in tradition as well as how they’re coached and play the game. They’re good about putting the ball in play, and they play good defense. And, you can go a long way doing those things,” he added.
The probable starting pitchers if you go be the area series last week will be junior Cole Jackson (4-2 with a 2.26 ERA) for West Rusk, and senior Carson Gonzalez (8-0, 0.51) for the Eagles.
Other players to watch in this best-of-three showdown will be Ty Harper (.398), Jason Reasoner (.347) and Garrett Sipes (.326) for West Rusk, as well as shortstop Cooper Whiteus (.382), left fielder Cayden Tatum (.377) and designated-hitter Dustin Henigan (.376) for Tatum.
The Eagles are hitting .318 and first baseman Brody Downs leads the way in RBI with 19 followed by Whiteus and Henigan with 16 each.
The winner advances to meet the winner of the Gunter (32-0) and Edgewood (27-8-1) in the regional semifinals next week. Their quarterfinal series begins Thursday at Rockwall and continues Friday, and Saturday if necessary, at North Forney.