The Calallen baseball squad has dominated its district the past couple years. Success at the state level has been elusive, though. This year's team aspires to win the state title like many Calallen teams before it.
Photo by Jim Redman
Conference 31-4A champions — again, and a perfect 14-0 district record. But if you asked any senior on Calallen's baseball team what was the one gaping, missing piece in two years of excellence, they'd all answer the same: No state championship.
The Wildcats have won three Texas 4A state championships since 2000, capturing state crowns in 2000, 2005 and 2008. They've also learned what it's like falling short of winning a state title in each of the last two years.
Wyatt Mathisen
Photo by Jim Redman
With a team led by
Wyatt Mathisen,
Armando Arrevelo,
Tyler Neslony,
Desi Castillo,
Tate Bammert and
Preston Dorsey, the Wildcats seem primed to finally knock the door down and win their first state championship in four years.
With that type of returning lineup, the Wildcats begin the 2012 season ranked No. 10 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 Preseason National Baseball Rankings.
Mathisen will be a key component in Calallen's success. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound senior, who's being projected to be a high draft pick in the June professional draft, has great command, throws with consistent velocity around 90 mph, posted an 11-2 record with a 1.27 ERA in 2010, and is coming off a season in which he hit .481.
Arrevalo is a lefty, also with good command and a great changeup, and he enters his senior year off a junior season in which he went 12-1 with a 1.52 ERA.
So it appears the Wildcats will be fine in the pitching area. They should be in every game they play. Their six losses last season were by a combined 11 runs, and of the six, four were one-run defeats.
Offensively, Calallen will need to fill the void left by the graduating Tanner Vandevere, who hit .459 last season. Neslony has proven to be a solid run producer, possesses a strong arm and hit .390.
But the underlying driving force of the team's seniors is not another district crown, but to add 2012 to the list of state baseball championships at Calallen. You get the feeling they won't accept anything less.
Local look: "They're by far the class of District 31-4A, which is one of the more competitive districts. Calallen is supposed to be really good with everyone pretty much back. It's a given they'll be the top-ranked team in the state. The last few years, they experienced some tough losses at the state level. That's definitely left a bitter taste in their mouths. This is a team with some serious unfinished business this year. They've won state championships before, but as far as this team being a state-championship caliber, they have to be part of the conversation. They've set the bar very high and they have to get over that hurdle. These seniors want to win a ring. Their goal is to win the final game of the season."
- Greg Rajan, Corpus Christi Caller-Times
