AUSTIN, Texas — Tucker Anderson made a line-drive catch, and the Pleasant Grove Hawks secured the 4A baseball state championship 2-1 over the Rusk Eagles Thursday evening at UCFU Disch-Falk Field.
The Hawks had seven hits and an error as Coe Blain was the winning pitcher and was the game’s most valuable player.
Rusk produced seven hits and an error. Nathan Circle takes the loss for the Eagles despite a tremendous pitching effort with the state title on the line.
Coach Riley Fincher, who was drenched with a Gatorade bath, was pleased with the effort from his team to win state.
“That’s what it’s all about, those young men right there,” Fincher told Fox Sports Texarkana’s Bob DelGiorno after the win on the field. “I cannot say enough about Coe Blain and what he did coming in the first inning and pitching his butt off.”
Blain was impervious and never knew fear while on the mound for the Hawks with the state championship on the line.
“I’m just like that,” Blain said.
Traveler Couch took in the scene behind home plate at UCFU Disch-Falk Field, the home of the Texas Longhorns, before the state title game began.
“I was trying to soak it all in before we played and it got hectic,” Couch said.
Pleasant Grove athletic director Josh Gibson says the win is “awesome” for the school, community, and Coach Fincher, and emphasized the student-athletes earned it.
“They earned it,” Gibson said. “They grind. They put in a ton of time. They believe in each other so much, and so proud of these guys.”