McNeil Baseball opened up the season on their home field, serving as one of the host teams. The Mavs started with three wins and two losses to open the season, starting out Thursday afternoon with a win against Wylie. After taking an early lead, Wylie scored to tie the game up at 1-1 before taking a 3-1 lead going into the middle of the game. Senior Nathanael Schraeder pitched a gem, not allowing Wylie to score again, as the bats came alive in the later innings, as the Mavs started the season with a win, ending with a score of 6-3.
In the evening, the second game of the day took place between McNeil and Little Elm. The Mavs jumped out to an early lead, but it was all Lobos from there, as they scored in multiple innings, never letting up as they kept on piling runs throughout the game. The pitching and defense were also great for Little Elm, as several hard-hit and well-placed balls off of Maverick’s bats ended up resulting in outs instead of hits. The game ended with a score of 12-3, ending the undefeated season.
The first game on Friday was between McNeil and San Antonio Brandeis, which featured a significant turnout from the student section. The game did not disappoint, where McNeil jumped on top early, with two quick runs, right off the bat. Brandeis, however, responded with five runs of their own, to silence the crowd and take a big swing of momentum. But the Mavs weren’t going to go away, immediately scoring five of their own to take the lead back and it wouldn’t end there, as they would score five more before the game was over, getting back in the win column, 12-6.
Then on Friday evening, the biggest game of the weekend took place, when the fourth-ranked team in Texas, SA Johnson and the best player in Texas in the Class of 2025, Kayson Cunningham, came to town for a showdown. However, the highly prestigious stats wouldn’t quite live up to their name in this game. After scoring four runs in the third inning, Johnson took a 4-0 lead, but it was all Mavs after that. McNeil scored a run in the fourth to cut the lead to 4-1, and three in the fifth to make it a 4-4 game. Another run in the sixth gave the Mavs the lead at 5-4. They compiled these runs by forcing Johnson to make plays, which they couldn’t. The Jaguars ended up making seven errors, not being able to make plays which ended up leading to Maverick’s runs. The game ended when junior catcher Xander Covar threw a runner out at second to seal the statement win for the Mavs.
The last game of the weekend on Saturday was a bit of a letdown, as McNeil lost 13-0 to Keller, who was able to do whatever they wanted all day, but it was still a great weekend, with multiple wins over great teams, including one of the best teams in the state. If this tournament was any indication of how the season will go, this team will return to the playoffs.
