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Houston Second Baptist School's baseball team secured its sixth overall Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) State Championship on Thursday (May 19) with an 11-5 win over The Brook Hill School of Arlington, per the high school sports website VYPE Houston, Houston NBC affiliate KPRC reported.
Head coach Rayner Noble said in the report that the program's latest title caps a year in which injuries and early deficits in games were common, yet his players found a way to rise to the occasion.
“It was early in the year where I saw that we could do some special things,” Noble told VYPE Houston.
According to VYPE Houston, Second Baptist had to soldier on without one of its valuable pieces, junior Ty Baker.
The Texas A&M pledge missed a lot of action because of injury, opening the door for sophomore Turner Murdock, the website reported.
“When he went down it was an opportunity for me to step up," Murdock, who quarterbacked Second Baptist to a state title game appearance last fall, told VYPE Houston. "Everyone stepped up."
The underclassman hurler credited senior Leighton Reddy.
"He’s been an elite closer for us," Murdock added.
VYPE Houston reported that Baker eventually returned to strengthen the Eagles' pitching arsenal.
As for Reddy, the website reported, he ended his prep career by tossing the ball to junior Luke Pettitte to tag the final out that officially sealed the title for Second Baptist, which now has 32 championships to its name.
“It feels amazing and sounds amazing,” Pettitte, whose father is five-time World Series champion Andy Pettitte, told VYPE Houston.
According to the website, the Pettittes are an institution at Second Baptist.
The elder Pettitte, who took the mound for his hometown Houston Astros from 2004 to 2006, is a member of Noble's staff while Jared, his second-eldest child and older brother to Luke, won the 2016 state championship with the Eagles.