The clock refuses to strike midnight for the Westgate High baseball team.

The Tigers barely earned a berth into the Class 4A playoff bracket as the team battled through a tough non-district and district schedule while also battling key injuries. Westgate ended the regular season with an 11-21 overall record, the worst record of any of the Class 4A playoff teams, and was given the No. 31 seed. 

That gave Westgate a first-round playoff game at No. 2 Tioga, a team that had ended Westgate’s previous two seasons.

Back in 2016, Tioga routed Westgate 10-0 in the first round, and then swept them in the quarterfinals by winning a pair of games 7-1 and then 8-7.

Westgate, though, would not suffer the same fate as the Tigers upset their recent playoff nemesis 5-2 in the opening round.

Westgate was just warming up as they then went back on the road and took two of three from No. 18 Warren Easton, including winning the deciding game by one run.

Then this past Thursday and Friday, Westgate was forced to go on the road again and this time face No. 23 Rayne, a fellow District 4-4A opponent that the Tigers split the series with during the regular season. There would be no split this time as Westgate swept the series by the scores of 7-4 and 5-4. 

Westgate now will look to keep its magical run alive when it arrives at McMurry Park in Sulphur this Friday for the state semifinals. Westgate will take on No. 3 DeRidder at 1:30 p.m.

Of the 48 teams that will be there competing in the state semifinals, none of them are seeded as low as Westgate. The next closest is No. 11 Merryville in the Class 1A bracket. 

In fact, since the LHSAA went to the current seeding process starting with the 2008 season, Westgate is the lowest- seeded team to advance to the baseball semifinals. The previous lowest seed was St. Louis which accomplished the feat in 2010 as a No. 25 seed. St. Louis ironically upset No. 1-seed Tioga in the quarterfinals to do so.

If Westgate does win its semifinal game and wins a state championship, it would also become the lowest-seeded champion to win a state title. The lowest-seeded champion since 2008 is Catholic of Baton Rouge who as a No. 21 seed won the Class 5A title in 2013. 

Regardless if Westgate brings back from Sulphur some hardware, first-year head coach David Angeron and his team, which features nine seniors, should hold their heads up high for making history.

That said, we all will be hoping the clock doesn’t strike midnight on Westgate’s season until well after next Saturday.

 

RAYMOND PARTSCH III

MANAGING EDITOR